00:00 Introduction to Romans 1:24-32

02:11 The Downward Spiral of Sin

05:03 Three Steps of the Death Spiral

07:02 Exchanging God's Truth for Lies

12:08 Rejecting God's Design

15:24 The Universality of Sin

17:38 Embracing God to Avoid the Spiral

19:57 Understanding God's Wrath

21:25 The Consequences of Sin

29:18 The Deceptive Nature of Sin

33:00 Embracing Sinful Thinking

36:50 The Importance of Holiness

39:41 Conclusion and Call to Action

Romans one is where we're going.

2

Romans one.

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And we're gonna be looking at verses 24.

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This is 32.

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Romans 1, 24 to 32, Romans 1, 24 to 32.

6

So you may have heard, you may have heard

that today something really sad happened.

7

Um, something really sad and

really, really evil happened.

8

So there was someone who, um.

9

Who believes some things that the Bible

says, and they were shot by someone

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who didn't like that about them.

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They didn't like what they

believed and they shot him.

12

Um, I would not, I would, I would

tell you, don't go look this

13

up because it's live on camera.

14

Someone caught it on

camera, so don't watch it.

15

Um, so don't watch it.

16

But the reason I bring it up is 'cause

some of you might have heard about it.

17

Um.

18

And the reaction to it was,

obviously people are very, feel

19

very bad about this, right?

20

Someone, a guy died, a

husband died, a father died.

21

Um, but one of the reactions that I

noticed, someone I know, um, their

22

reaction was really, really, really

sad, actually made me feel sick.

23

Um, they were excited and they

were happy that this person died.

24

They were celebrating that this person

was shot and that these, this wife

25

doesn't have her husband anymore, and that

these kids don't have their dad anymore.

26

They were excited because they

think this person spreads hate and

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this person spreads violence, and

they think that this person doesn't

28

deserve to be alive, and so they are

celebrating that this person was shot.

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They're celebrating an innocent

person's death because they

30

disagree with what this person says.

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It's really sad.

32

How does someone get to that point?

33

How does a real person, a real,

not, not just someone online, but

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a, a real person gets to the point

where they're excited that an

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innocent person got shot and killed.

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What makes someone get to that point?

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What takes someone to, to be that

hardhearted and set in their sin and

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is, is what we're gonna look at tonight?

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This passage, Romans one is gonna

show us a downward spiral of sin.

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It's gonna show us where that

spiral starts and kind of

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the steps along that spiral.

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And it, it's kind of a, it's, it's

a spiral 'cause it's cyclical.

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It, it reoccurs and you go

further and further, further

44

down into what this death spiral.

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And you end up like this

person that I know who.

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Just, I can't even explain how horrible

this is, that they're excited, they're

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celebrating this person's death.

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Um, and that's because they are

currently living out this passage.

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This passage talks about our sin.

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It talks about, um, what happens

when we reject God and, um.

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That's what we're gonna

see in tonight's passage.

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So our main point tonight

is that rejecting God starts

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a deadly spiral of sin.

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It begins with a rejection of God.

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It doesn't begin with

who your parents are.

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It doesn't begin with how you were raised.

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It doesn't begin with your who you follow

on Instagram, or the kind of books you

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read, or the podcast you listen to.

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It begins.

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With what you do with God,

with who God is to you.

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That's where it starts.

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And once you reject God, once you say

that, that you don't want God in your

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life, once you oppose God in that way,

you have set yourself on this trajectory,

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this downward spiral that will take you

to terrible, terrible places, obviously

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in eternity, apart from God in Hell.

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But also along the way, you,

you won't go to places that you.

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Want to be in.

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So remember the big picture, right?

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We're we're seeing Romans one,

two, and three are showing us

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that God's wrath is righteous.

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It's a good thing for

God to show his wrath.

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It's a good thing because

God is a good judge.

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He's being a good judge.

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When he shows his anger towards

sin, that's the, that's what we're

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looking at for these first three

chapters of Romans, and this passage

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is showing us what that looks like.

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So what's gonna be interesting

about this passage is that this is

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actually how God shows his wrath.

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He hands people over

to their spiral of sin.

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He says, okay, if you're gonna reject

me, I will let you keep doing that,

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and I will send you down this path.

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Down this spiral to your

destruction, and this is what

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we're gonna see in this passage.

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Okay?

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I don't know if we're gonna be able

to read through the whole thing,

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but this is what the spiral is.

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There's three steps to the spiral, okay?

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The death spiral of sin

starts with rejecting God.

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People reject God to worship other things.

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They say this is better than

God, this thing that they want.

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Maybe it's money, maybe it's

power, maybe it's control.

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Maybe it's pleasure.

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Maybe in, in this case,

it's a statue right?

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In, in, in Romans one.

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Um, they worship other things than God.

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They say, I don't want God.

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This is better.

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Remember we talked about last week, sin is

preferring something else to God, right?

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Sin is is not first and

foremost something bad.

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The reason it's bad is because you're

saying something's better than God.

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That's sin.

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So it starts with rejecting

God to worship other things.

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Then God shows his wrath by

handing people over to their sin.

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He says, okay, if that's what you

want, if you really want something

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other than me, I'll let you have it.

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You can have this thing

besides me to to be your God.

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He hands them over to that.

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He says, here you go.

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You wanted it.

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Then those people say, awesome, great.

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I finally got what I, what I wanted.

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I don't have God in my life anymore.

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I got rid of God.

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I, I'm the authority now.

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I'm in control.

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I'm most important.

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I finally got what I wanted.

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I can do whatever I want.

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No more rules.

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No more restrictions, no more big,

bad God telling me what to do.

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And they're, they're free from that.

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And they embrace that sin, right?

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They embrace their, their.

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They're in control of their lives

now, or they can do whatever they

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want, this freedom, this autonomy.

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They can do whatever they want and then

they keep on going down this spiral.

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That's what this passage is

gonna show us, that there's

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these three steps to this spiral.

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So the, but it starts with rejecting.

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Starts with rejecting God, and

that's what we see in this passage.

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All right, so what I want you

to see is just from, I took kind

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of a few verses from Romans one.

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Just to kind of show you what Paul

is saying, people reject God, right?

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They, they know God.

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They don't honor him as God.

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They know about God, right?

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They say, oh yeah, God exists,

but they say, uh, well, I

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don't really wanna worship him.

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And he's saying, everyone is in that boat.

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Everyone knows God exists.

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Everyone can know that God exists

because of his creation, right?

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We talked about that I think two weeks

ago or last week, that everyone can

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know God exists because of his creation.

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He's made it obvious that he exists,

but people don't worship him.

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People don't treat him like he's God.

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They live their own life.

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Another way they do that is they

exchange the glory of God for images.

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They say, well, I know that I'm supposed

to worship God, but instead I want this.

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This is better than God.

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This is more important than God.

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This is cooler than God.

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This will make me happier

than God could make me.

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They exchange the glory of God for images.

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Right in, in our day it's maybe

not a, a picture or, or a statue,

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but it's a feeling we want or a

position we want, or a relationship

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we want or something, right?

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We, we say, I want this

more than I want God.

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Something else that we do is we

exchange the truth about God for a lie.

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We say, well, maybe, maybe you think that

about God, but I think God is like this.

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We, we take things that are true and

we say, I don't want to believe those.

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I know maybe you say that God exists

or you say that God says this,

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or God wants me to live this way.

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And you say, I don't want,

I don't wanna believe that.

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And you believe lies.

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That's the other thing that we do.

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Another way we reject God is

we take things that are true

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and we say, I don't want those.

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I don't want things

that make me feel good.

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Things that I like.

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I'd rather hear what I

like than hear what's true.

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And then another way, right?

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Don't fit, see, fit.

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To acknowledge God.

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We say, I don't, I don't

want to deal with God.

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I'm just gonna put God

to the back of my mind.

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I don't want to, I don't

want to think about God.

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I don't wanna live as though God exists.

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So it starts with a rejection of God.

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And so these points, the three points

tonight, they're gonna be what not to do.

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These three points are three

ways to ruin your life.

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So the points are what's not or

you're not supposed to do, right?

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The points are three ways to

ruin your life, three ways to, to

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take this downward spiral of sin.

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And end up under God's wrath.

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So the first way to ruin your life

and blend in with, with our world

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that hates God is to reject God

to worship other things, right?

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That's the first step in our spiral.

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It starts with rejecting God.

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Just like we said last week, all sins

starts with preferring something to God.

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All sins starts with, I want that.

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I don't want God.

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I wanna do things my way, not God's way.

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This is better than God.

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That's how sin starts.

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We even see that, right?

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I showed you this earlier, but we see that

here they exchange the truth about God.

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Verse 25.

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So these people who are, whose God's

handing over to to their own desires,

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they exchange the truth about God

for a lie and worshiped and served

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the creature rather than the creator.

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Said, I like the things God

made more than God, right?

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That that's all of us in this room.

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We want the things that

God made more than we want.

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God.

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That's called sin.

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We're all sinners.

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We're all wired this way.

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Everyone starts off in this boat.

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We all start wanting what God

made more than we want God, right?

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We want approval more than we want God.

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We want money more than we want God.

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We want security and comfort

more than we want God.

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We want pleasure more than we want God.

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All these things, we want more than God.

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We serve what God made

instead of serving God.

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That's how sin starts.

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Every sin trades something true about

God and and says it's a lie, right?

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If you think about this, even with.

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Sins that maybe seem more common, right?

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Something like, well, I'm

not like worshiping an idol.

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What about like anxiety?

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Anxiety?

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You're trading the truth

about God for a lie.

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Anxiety is saying, well, I know

that God's in control, but I don't

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really feel like he's in control.

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I know that God loves you.

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I don't really feel like he loves me.

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And so you believing a lie

instead of what's true, right?

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Or something maybe like impurity you're

saying, I know that God promises joy, but

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really I think this will make me happen.

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Be or laziness.

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I know that following God and doing this

hard thing would actually be better for

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me, but I'd rather listen to my, my flesh

and I will buy the lie that being lazy

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and undisciplined will be better for me.

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So every sin, you're,

you're buying a lie, right?

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We talked about that last week, right?

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You're, you're trading, you're

making a bad trade, right?

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You're, you're, it's like you're

the general manager of the Cowboys.

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You're making a bad trade.

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You're, you're, you're trading

something true for a lie.

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But then part of this spiral is

you also reject God's good design.

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So you not only reject God, you

reject the way he made things to be.

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That's what the next few verses

talk about, verses 26 and 27.

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For this reason.

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So what reason?

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Well, the people exchange the

truth about God for a lie.

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So then God gave them up.

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He handed them over to their desires.

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He said, okay, you wanna

worship something other than me?

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Here you go.

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I'll let you, I'll give you over to

those sinful desires that you have.

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And this phrase, natural

relations comes up, right?

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The point that Paul's making is these

people, these women and these men, they're

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sinning against God's created design.

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God made the world to work one way,

and they're saying, God, we don't

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like the way you made the world.

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We're gonna make it.

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We're, we're gonna do our own

thing that we think is better.

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What happens with sin is

we not only reject God, we

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reject the way he made things.

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Right?

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In this case, what Paul is talking

about is Paul is talking about

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homosexuality here in this passage, right?

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That's what he's saying.

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Women who exchange natural relations

for those that are contrary to

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nature, against nature, right?

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God designed marriage

between a man and a woman.

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God designed there to be men and women.

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And for you to stay a man and a

woman or a woman, they're women.

270

So these people, they, they say, I don't

want the way God designed me to be.

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I want a different way.

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And so they're exchanging that they're

going against God's created design.

273

Verse 27, same thing.

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These men do the same thing.

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Instead of wanting to be married to

one woman, they say, well, actually

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I want to, I, I desire other men.

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So this is a down the spiral

consequence of rejecting God.

278

You reject God, then you start

to reject what he says, and

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so then you reject his design.

280

So it's down the spiral, right?

281

So you reject God, you

start rejecting things.

282

God says that's what happens.

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And that's what Paul's talking about here.

284

He's talking about homosexuality.

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Now, next week we are gonna talk

more in depth about homosexuality.

286

So if you have questions, don't

terrorize your leaders yet next

287

week you'll be able to do that.

288

So next week we're gonna talk about

what the Bible says about homosexuality,

289

how to talk to people who maybe believe

that other things about homosexuality

290

or any of the other LGBTQ plus letters.

291

That's what we're gonna be

talking about next week.

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Okay?

293

So if you have questions about that, what

the Bible says, save 'em for next week.

294

But we do care about that.

295

We, 'cause God cares about it.

296

Um, and so we want to explain that

to you and equip you to maybe talk

297

with people who believe those things.

298

So that's what we'll

be covering next week.

299

But right now what I want you to

see is that, what Paul is saying

300

here is that homosexuality is

a rejection of God's design.

301

It's, it's an extension of rejecting God.

302

You reject God, so then you

reject the way he made things.

303

Right?

304

That's, that's Paul's point.

305

So.

306

Then what happens next?

307

Well, maybe you're like,

well, my sin isn't that bad.

308

I'm not one of these people that's totally

rejecting the way God made the world.

309

Well, look what else Paul says, verse 28.

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Since they did not see fit to acknowledge

God, these people who, who didn't wanna

311

worship God, God gave them up to a

debased mind, like a twisted, messed up

312

mind to do what ought, ought to be done.

313

And then he has this big list of things.

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There's like over 20 things on this list.

315

I'm on this list.

316

You're on this list, right?

317

Maybe you were like, oh, well

I'm not one of those people that

318

totally rejects God's design.

319

Well, you're still one

of these people, right?

320

You're still one of these people

who don't acknowledge God as this,

321

and then you, or before you were

Christian, you were one of these people.

322

So there's this big list of things and

some of these things you're like, man,

323

that's tor, that's terrible, right?

324

You see murder over there.

325

You see haters of God on there.

326

You see heartless or, or ruthless,

and you're like, man, that's terrible.

327

Those are really bad people.

328

Well, who's, who else

is in the same category?

329

Anyone ever done that before?

330

Right?

331

What about this one?

332

You ever wanted something

that wasn't yours?

333

What about this one?

334

You ever lied?

335

What about this one?

336

Right.

337

This is all the same category, boasting.

338

It's all the same group.

339

All of these people deserve God's wrath.

340

You deserve God's wrath.

341

I deserve God's wrath.

342

And the worst sin you can

think of deserves God's wrath.

343

Every single person does.

344

All of us reject God.

345

All of us categorically do the same.

346

Same thing, right?

347

We sin, we say, I want this more than God.

348

So before you say, well, I'm not as bad as

those people keep reading the passage and,

349

and, and think about, man, I, according

to Paul, I do what these people do.

350

The people who reject God, I do

the same things that they do.

351

So how do I not do this right?

352

How do I not start this downward spiral?

353

How do I not right?

354

I, I'm a sinner.

355

I, I know that.

356

I, I see it.

357

Okay, how do I not reject God?

358

Well, hopefully you've already

done this, but you, you embrace God

359

the opposite of rejecting, right?

360

You think of like rejecting,

pushing on away, embracing you.

361

You come to God, you say, God, I want you.

362

That's what trusting God is.

363

It's embracing him.

364

Or you, maybe you heard

the term, receive Jesus.

365

That means like to, to come

to him, to, to embrace him.

366

And you say.

367

You.

368

You trust God.

369

You say, you know what?

370

God, what you designed is good.

371

The way you made the world to work.

372

The things you say in your word is good.

373

It's good for me, right?

374

You're a good God.

375

You're a kind God.

376

You're a loving God and I trust you.

377

I trust you to save me.

378

I'm messed up.

379

I'm a sinner.

380

I need you to save me.

381

And that starts when you become a

Christian, but also for the rest of

382

your life, there's gonna be things

that are hard for you to believe

383

that what God says is better.

384

It's gonna be hard, like for

the rest of your Christian life.

385

It's not just a one time,

okay, I, I didn't reject God.

386

Great.

387

I'm a Christian.

388

No.

389

It's like, well, I, you

keep on embracing God.

390

You keep on saying, God, I trust you.

391

Your design is better.

392

Right?

393

Maybe I didn't get into the

school I wanted to go into.

394

I don't have the friends that I, I

thought I'd have, or I'm not as good

395

at this as I want to be, or what.

396

You have to trust God with those things

and say, God, you are working for my good.

397

And then also something else to, to

prevent this spiral is you see how

398

destructive and, and terrible your sin is.

399

You, you, you see where this goes?

400

You see where this spiral, that's why

Paul does this, is he shows you where

401

your sinful desires will take you.

402

You refute lies with truth.

403

You, you, you think back

when you're tempted to sin.

404

You say, what?

405

We talked about this last week, right?

406

Your sin is trying to sell you something.

407

It's trying to make, it's trying

to offer you something, and

408

you say, well, that's not true.

409

It's not worth it.

410

Here's what God offers me.

411

God offered me something better.

412

And that's why you need to know what

God says because if you don't know what

413

God says, it's gonna be hard to believe

that what he has for you is better.

414

So

415

the first step in this spiral is to reject

God and worship other things instead

416

to want other things more than God.

417

And the second step in our spiral

right, was that God hands people

418

over to their, to their sinful

desires, which is interesting, right?

419

'cause God is the one actively doing that.

420

It's not that you did it, God did it.

421

It's that's how God shows his wrath.

422

Even presently, God is presently

showing his wrath against people who

423

are living and walking around on the

earth by giving them over to their sin.

424

And that's what we see in this passage.

425

I forgot to show you this.

426

This is how Paul ends Romans one.

427

Those who practice such things

disobeying their parents, gossiping,

428

envying, deserve to die, right?

429

You need, we need to

see how bad our sin is.

430

My sin put Jesus on the cross, right?

431

My sin deserves hell, just like that

person's sin, who maybe seems worse.

432

Anyway, that was our first point, talking

about now the second phase in our spiral,

433

that God gives people over to their

sinful desires when they reject him.

434

We see that right?

435

Verse 24, 26, 28.

436

Like this.

437

That's where I got the spiral idea from.

438

Right?

439

It's like a, you ever seen

a spiral staircase, right?

440

Paul is like walking down this

spiral staircase of sin, and

441

God is the one who's saying how,

here's how I'm gonna show my wrath.

442

I'm going to hand you over to your lusts,

to your passions, to your sinful thinking.

443

I'm gonna give you over to those things.

444

It's like almost like,

um, in a courtroom, right?

445

When someone's convicted,

they hand them over, right?

446

They're guilty, they hand them over.

447

He's saying, here you go.

448

This is what you wanted.

449

It's actually how God shows his wrath.

450

God punishes you by letting you sin.

451

Isn't that weird?

452

So if you wanna continue down

the spiral of rejecting God

453

and ruining your life, 0.2

454

would be to let your desires loose.

455

That's the second way you

can ruin your life and end up

456

apart from God under his wrath.

457

Do whatever you want, right?

458

Don't hold back any of

your sinful desires.

459

Just follow them wherever your

body, wherever your sin tells

460

you to go, follow it and just go.

461

That's how you ruin your life.

462

But it's really interesting

to think about that.

463

God shows his wrath by

letting people sin, right?

464

He hands them over to their sin.

465

That's that.

466

It's probably something you

haven't thought about before.

467

And how does that work?

468

Well, if what you want is bad

for you, it's a punishment to

469

let you keep doing it, right?

470

If what you want is bad for you

471

to punish you, I would just

let you keep doing it right,

472

because that's bad for you.

473

It reminded me of this really old

book that I read in elementary school.

474

I don't, no one's probably

ever heard of this book.

475

It's called Mrs.

476

Pickle Wiggle.

477

Now this book, so this, this, it's

this about this old lady and Mrs.

478

P wiggle is like this, this lady who's

like really good at like parenting tricks.

479

So all the people in their little town,

they come to her and they're like, my

480

daughter has this problem, or my son has

this problem and they ask her to fix it.

481

And she comes up with some like really

funny, like clever way to help them.

482

So.

483

For example, uh, this dude, he

didn't wanna put his toys away.

484

He never wanted to clean up, right?

485

He never wanted to clean up.

486

His toys are all over his room.

487

He doesn't wanna clean up.

488

And so here's what Mrs.

489

Pickle wiggle decides to do.

490

She says, okay, fine.

491

Just let him keep all his toys out.

492

And it's like, what?

493

That seems counterintuitive, right?

494

But what happens is they, for like, I

don't know how long, maybe it's like a

495

month, they let him keep all his toys

out and he takes all 'em out and he has,

496

his room is full of toys and eventually

he can't even like get out of his room.

497

And like he's, there's like delivering

him food at the door of his room.

498

Anyway, it's really funny.

499

But then what Ms.

500

Tickle wiggle does is she leads like

a parade, like a really fun parade,

501

like this big party outside the

house, and he's stuck in his room

502

because he wouldn't clean up his toys.

503

So now he can't go enjoy this parade.

504

He can't be part of this awesome party

because he didn't put away his toys.

505

You see that?

506

So what she did is she

said, Hey, don't, it's fine.

507

Keep all your toys out.

508

You're gonna miss out

on what's better, right?

509

Same thing, I, I'm not

sure if it was this girl.

510

It was, there was a girl in the book.

511

She never wanted to take a bath.

512

She never wanted to shower.

513

Right.

514

Which that's pretty easy to

hand someone over to, right.

515

So what they did is they were like, fine,

we're just gonna let you not shower and

516

not take a bath and never clean yourself.

517

And then this girl gets like so dirty.

518

They like, it's really weird.

519

They plant like a like seeds on her

'cause there's so much dirt on her

520

and she ends up like covered in like

plants, which is probably not good.

521

But the point is, okay, fine, you don't

wanna take a shower, that's totally fine.

522

You're just gonna be gross

and disgusting, right?

523

That's what God does when he

hands you over to your sin.

524

He says, okay, you wanna keep sinning, you

wanna keep following your impure thoughts.

525

You want to keep being

anxious and not trusting me.

526

You wanna keep coveting and envying

and gossiping, and slandering,

527

and disobeying your parents and

all the things on that list, fine.

528

Do it.

529

It'll kill you.

530

That's what God says.

531

That's how God shows his wrath.

532

By letting you keep sinning, you

miss out on these amazing things

533

that he has to offer because you

settled for something lame, right?

534

You, you kept all the toys out in your

room and you missed out on the party.

535

You ended up gross and disgusting in

your sin because that's what you wanted.

536

You wanted it, and he

says, here you go, have it.

537

That's part of this spiral.

538

If you let your sinful

desires lead you, right?

539

If you let your sinful desires take you

where they want you to go, where you

540

think you want to go, you will continue

out in this spiral under God's wrath.

541

That's why self-control

is such a good thing.

542

Self-control is a, is a good thing

because it prevents you from following

543

this spiral and ruining your life.

544

Paul is trying to show you the end of the

story, this passage, what God is doing.

545

God doesn't want you to to end up

stuck in your room with all your

546

toys out missing out on the party.

547

God doesn't want you to be gross

and disgusting with plants all over

548

you because you didn't wanna shower.

549

God loves you too much.

550

And so he gives you warnings

and he says, if you keep going

551

that way, it'll kill you.

552

And so he says, don't like follow me.

553

He gives you a better offer.

554

But we have to fight our sinful

desires to do that even if

555

it feels good in the moment.

556

Think about when you're,

when you're tempted, right?

557

You want to, your desires

are pulling at you.

558

The best thing to do in that moment is to

think, okay, where is this gonna take me?

559

If I give into this temptation,

where is this gonna go?

560

Right.

561

Kind of like you ever been to

all you can eat Korean barbecue?

562

Yes.

563

It's like Kenneth just woke up.

564

Um, so right.

565

All you can eat Korean barbecue,

they have all those like,

566

random things out on the table.

567

You know, like, there's like

vegetables and weird stuff, right?

568

I know some people that don't even

eat the rice at cream barbecue cup.

569

Why?

570

Because they wanna save as much

room as possible for the meat.

571

They wanna save as much room as possible

for the bulgogi and the, you know,

572

Korean fried chicken and the pork belly.

573

They want to save all the room for that.

574

So they're like, no appetizers.

575

I don't want it.

576

Some people even skip lunch.

577

They're like, I wanna be ready for

this, so I'm gonna skip lunch so

578

that I can be as hungry as possible

to eat the, to get my money's

579

worth on this 30 something dollars.

580

All you can eat barbecue, right?

581

Mm-hmm.

582

So what helps you be self-controlled?

583

Let's say you're skipping lunch, which

don't do it, but let's say you're

584

skipping lunch to, to enjoy your all.

585

You can eat Korean barbecue at dinner when

you're starving at 3:00 PM and you want to

586

go to the to the pantry and grab a snack.

587

What's gonna keep you motivated to be self

controlled and not give into your desires?

588

You gotta think about, you gotta

think about the Korean barbecue.

589

You gotta think about

how good it's gonna be.

590

You gotta think about, oh man, I

can just order like however much

591

I want and I can just eat it.

592

And you think about how awesome it is.

593

You're like, oh, you know what?

594

I'll wait.

595

I'll pass on the Doritos.

596

I'll pass on the whatever,

snacks, pretzels, whatever.

597

I don't know.

598

I'll pass on the snacks because I

want, I want what's better, right?

599

That's what God is offering you.

600

He's saying, here I have an all you

can eat barbecue of, of goodness

601

for you, but you're settling for the

lame little appetizers on the table.

602

You're, you're eating the kimchi and the,

the salad and the whatever you're, you're

603

eating all that, and you should be saving

room for what's, what's really good.

604

That's how you'd be self-control.

605

That's the secret to self-control

is, is to have a, a bigger desire.

606

Well, I want this more, so I'm not

gonna fall for the little thing.

607

I'm not gonna snack

because I, I want dinner.

608

That's what God gives us.

609

He gives us promises, he gives us warning.

610

He says, if you eat this.

611

You won't be hungry for

dinner, you'll miss out.

612

So think about right when you're attempted

and you feel the pull of your desires.

613

Think about the end of the story.

614

Think about where is this gonna take me?

615

How is this gonna go for me?

616

And think about that.

617

Your sinful desires are

destructive too, right?

618

They'll kill you, right?

619

They, they appear to be good,

but really they'll kill you.

620

I heard a story, I, I forget

where I heard it a long time ago,

621

about how some people kill wolves.

622

They're shepherds, they're trying

to protect their sheep, and

623

this is how they kill wolves.

624

Okay.

625

It's, it's kind of crazy.

626

Um, what they do is they take a,

um, they take like a, a steak,

627

essentially like meat, and they

put it over a, um, a knife and then

628

they freeze it and they put it out.

629

The wolf smells the meat, right?

630

And there's like blood and everything.

631

And so the wolf starts licking the ice

to get the meat off or to get the ice off

632

the meat so he can eat the meat, right?

633

So the wolf's like licking, licking

this ice to get, to get this meat.

634

And all the wolf tastes.

635

The wolf smells the meat, the wolf

tastes the meat, and there's blood.

636

And so he tastes, he tastes blood.

637

And that's good, right?

638

He's hungry, he wants blood.

639

So as the wolf starts licking this,

this ice and chewing on this meat,

640

he starts licking the the knife.

641

And then it cuts his tongue and his

tongue's bleeding and the whole time

642

he's licking it and like chewing on it.

643

And he's tasting what he thinks is

the animal that he's trying to eat,

644

but whose blood is he really tasting?

645

His.

646

And then the wolf bleeds out and dies.

647

Yeah, that's, that's

what your sin is doing.

648

Your sin is tricking you.

649

Your sin makes you think you're

eating this awesome steak, but

650

really you're, you're dying, you're

bleeding out on your own blood.

651

That's what your sin does.

652

And the hard part is seeing

it for what it is, right?

653

Because you're, you're, you get so

wrapped up in, oh, this tastes so good.

654

And you, you, for, you don't realize

what you're doing to yourself, right?

655

And so that's why God

gives us these warnings.

656

That's why he says, Hey.

657

Look out, right?

658

God's wrath is coming on.

659

These types of sins, God's wrath

is, is against these people.

660

These type of sins will lead you to death.

661

That's what God says, and the reason

he says that isn't 'cause he hates

662

you and wants you to have no fun.

663

It's 'cause he loves you

and doesn't want you to die.

664

So your your sin, your sinful desires.

665

If you follow your sinful desires,

it tricks you because it gets

666

you to like what kills you.

667

Right.

668

That, that's, that's

how your sin kills you.

669

It gets you to like what kills you.

670

And so you keep, you keep licking it

and you bleed out because you, you're

671

enjoying it, but you're, it's like

you're addicted to poison, right?

672

You're just drinking and drinking and

drinking poison, and you kill yourself

673

because you're enjoying what kills you.

674

That's what your sin does.

675

And so you have to see

where is this taking me?

676

What is this doing?

677

But that state right of

I, I enjoy what kills me.

678

That's what sin does to you.

679

And if you follow this

spiral, you reject God.

680

You let your desires lead you.

681

That's what Paul means when he says that

God gives you over to your sinful desires.

682

He talks about your mind.

683

He says they're, they're, they're

futile in their understanding

684

or they claim to be wise.

685

They became fools because they

started to like what kills them.

686

You see that?

687

In our passage from last week, they

became futile in their thinking.

688

They thought they were smart, but they

were actually being foolish, and then God

689

gave them up to a debased mind, right?

690

A sinful mind.

691

Verse 28.

692

What your sin does is it gets you to

like what's killing you, and that's

693

how you end up trapped in this spiral.

694

That's the very bottom of the spiral.

695

You like your sin and you hate God, and

you love hating God, and you love sinning.

696

So the last step in this spiral is to

embrace sinful thinking and values.

697

So you start enjoying it, right?

698

Your sin used to feel bad

and now it doesn't anymore.

699

Now it just feels normal, and

then it starts feeling good

700

and doesn't bother you anymore,

701

right?

702

If you're, if you're starting to

enjoy your sin, if you're approving

703

your sin, if you're saying, this is

great that I'm doing this, I love.

704

Being lazy, right?

705

I love being, I love gossiping.

706

It's so fun.

707

Just the thrill of being able to

spread news and, and the control I

708

get from being able to, to define

the narrative around people or, oh,

709

I, I love, I just, I love how much

better I am than other people, right?

710

And your pride, once you start

enjoying it, and once it starts

711

being comfortable and normal for

you, you're in a really bad spot

712

because.

713

You've got, you're, you're

enjoying what's killing you, right?

714

It doesn't bother you anymore.

715

Or when you watch that, it,

it doesn't really convict you.

716

Or when you play that game or

hear those words or make those

717

jokes, nothing, it doesn't,

there's, there's nothing happening.

718

You're just like, oh, that's really funny.

719

Or That was such a, that was really good.

720

And, and that's what.

721

That's what God is warning you right?

722

Is, is people at the bottom of this

spiral, and maybe that's, you think

723

that they're, they're doing great.

724

They're like, look how free I am.

725

I don't have to listen to God.

726

I don't have to read the Bible.

727

I don't have to be just,

I can do whatever I want.

728

I get to escape all of these rules

that my parents put on me or that,

729

that the Bible says they think they're

doing great, but in reality they're

730

foolish because they're saying, I

love this thing that's killing me.

731

And that's where Paul goes,

verse 27, they're, they're

732

doing shameless things, right?

733

They're not embarrassed about it.

734

They're, they're doing it openly.

735

They're not, they're not embarrassed if

someone knows that they're sinning, right?

736

Maybe they're bragging about it

or they, this last part, they

737

approve people who do those, right?

738

That's like what we do when

we laugh at a dirty joke.

739

We're giving approval to

someone who's sinning.

740

We're saying, oh, that's, that's great.

741

That's funny.

742

So

743

at the bottom of this spiral, your sin

becomes more normal and more enjoyable.

744

And, and the problem is you

don't really notice it, right?

745

Just like that wolf doesn't notice when it

went from sheep blood to wolf blood, you

746

don't notice it because it's so subtle.

747

And that's why, um, your sin, like

pastor PJ mentioned on Sunday.

748

You can't just have a little

sin in the corner and be like,

749

oh, it's just a little one.

750

It's okay.

751

It's just gossip or it's just coveting

or it's just lying or, uh, well, I don't,

752

I don't act on my lustful thoughts.

753

I just have lustful thoughts.

754

Those desires are trying to kill you.

755

They're not just there.

756

Right.

757

It's like having you hear about every once

in a while you hear this headline about.

758

You know, owner killed by Pet Snake.

759

It's like, why did you have, why

did you have a pet boa constrictor

760

that was probably gonna kill

you if it got out of its cage?

761

Right?

762

If you're treating your sin casually,

like, oh, it's just a little sin,

763

it's just not a, it's not a big deal.

764

You're, you're keeping a, a

deadly pet and it will kill you.

765

It's trying to kill you.

766

And so this, this whole thing

starts with rejecting God.

767

This whole spiral of now at this

point, the bottom of it, you're

768

embracing sin, you're celebrating sin.

769

You're not embarrassed about

sin, you're not convicted.

770

It starts with the rejection of God,

and that's why your relationship with

771

God, even as a Christian is so important

because the closer you are with God,

772

the more obvious your sin will be.

773

Right?

774

Just like

775

the cleaner.

776

Your house is the more obvious

it is when something's dirty.

777

Right?

778

I, my, um, college apartment,

I had two roommates.

779

I moved in to their apartment.

780

It was, it was disgusting.

781

Like this one dude like literally

stopped doing his dishes,

782

like just put 'em in the sink.

783

And I was like, what in the world?

784

Like, what are we doing guys?

785

Um, the other dude would like

stay up till 2:00 AM and play.

786

Rocket League and never clean anything.

787

It was, it was like the worst of what

you think of from college living.

788

And then they both graduated.

789

Praise the Lord.

790

After I got there, and then I had this

other roommate moved in and this roommate,

791

he's from Germany, his name is Marcus,

and he was like the best thing ever.

792

He came in, he like deep

cleaned everything right?

793

He was like, he took like everything

outta the stove, like all the

794

burners out and everything.

795

And I cleaned.

796

I was like, this is wild.

797

This is awesome.

798

So.

799

Now, right now I'm married

and I'm not living with dudes

800

I'm living with, with Shay.

801

And Shay's a very clean person

and she designs things that

802

look really cool and awesome.

803

Um, and so if one of my old

college roommates wanted to to

804

live with us for a month, we

would notice very quickly, right?

805

Dirty things started showing

up, or there was footprints on

806

the floor because it's clean.

807

But if it's already dirty,

you don't notice it.

808

Right?

809

If your relationship with

God is, is close, right?

810

If you're in God's word, you're your

time in, you're spending time in prayer.

811

You, you have a, a, a growing love

for him, a concern for others.

812

You're excited to be with Jesus.

813

You're, your sin will hurt more because

you're closer with God, so you'll

814

notice your sin more and you'll be

less vulnerable to this type of spiral.

815

So,

816

like we talked about on Sunday, which

I, I hope you're paying attention

817

to Pastor PJ when he's preaching,

but holiness right of putting off

818

sin is, is how you enjoy God, right?

819

The, the holier you are, the happier

you'll be because the more you'll enjoy

820

God, the closer you'll be with God.

821

So the reason we, we warn you about

these things and we tell you about

822

this spiral and how to ruin your life

and all that is so that you go to God.

823

We want you to go to God and

'cause God loves you and God will

824

make you happier than your sin.

825

Hands down, end of story.

826

And so the reason that, that Paul is

pointing all this out is because he's,

827

he wants to show you that you need Jesus.

828

That's where that's where we're gonna

go at the end of Romans chapter three.

829

He's gonna say that all of sin and

fallen short of the glory of God.

830

And so the only way to have a

relationship with God, to enjoy

831

God is to have your sin taken away.

832

And so as a Christian, it's putting off

sin because you've already been forgiven.

833

But primarily it comes from

forgiveness, from justification,

834

from getting Jesus righteousness.

835

That's how you enjoy God is the,

the, the gateway into that is

836

putting your faith in Jesus.

837

And so if, if, if you saw yourself

in this spiral tonight, if, if

838

you saw, you know that to me.

839

I'm enjoying my sin.

840

I'm celebrating my sin.

841

Don't fall for it and turn to Jesus.

842

Right?

843

You, you've been shown that

your sin will lead you to your

844

death, but Jesus offers you God.

845

That's the, that's the

reason we, we get forgiven.

846

That's the reason Jesus gives us

righteousness so we can be with God.

847

The whole point of

forgiveness is who you get.

848

You get God.

849

So, um, if you're a Christian,

pursue holiness so you can get God.

850

If you're not, get trust Jesus and get his

righteousness so that you can enjoy God.

851

Let's pray and we'll go to small groups.

852

God, we are grateful that you want us to

be happy, and maybe we've never thought

853

about that before, but thank you that

you love us and you made us to enjoy you.

854

That's what Christians for.

855

Centuries have said, is the

purpose of our existence to glorify

856

you and to enjoy you forever.

857

So I pray that we would see sin

as something that hinders, that,

858

that prevents us from being happy,

and that we would see you as.

859

Our ultimate happiness that you, God,

love us so much and you want what's

860

best for us, and we can trust you

to make us happy if we follow you.

861

So I pray tonight that you would help us

to see our sin for what it is, and I pray

862

that in small groups as we talk about

our sin and, and its consequences and,

863

and its effects that we would be honest

about ourselves and, and how we're so

864

drawn to our sin and that we would repent

of sin, put it off and kill it so that

865

we can put on you and enjoy you more.

866

We pray this in Jesus' name.

867

Amen.