The Strength of Sin

In this week’s episode, we dive deep into the complexities of sin and its powerful connection to legalism. Through the lens of scripture from First Corinthians and Romans, we explore how the law can inadvertently empower sin and the importance of cultivating a pure, faith-driven relationship with God.

Join us as we discuss:

• The role of self-control in our spiritual journey
• The significance of living a crucified life
• How legalistic tendencies can corrupt our spirituality
• Biblical examples that guide us to let go of self-imposed rules
• The transformative power of allowing the Holy Spirit to lead us

Together, we’ll seek true intimacy with God and prepare ourselves for His greater purpose in our lives. Don’t miss this enlightening conversation!

Transcript

0:00

Welcome to this week's episode of Relentless Pursuit. I'm so excited for you to be joining us this week. I I'm believing for God to do great things in this episode. And I know that as we grow and as we move forward, I'm believing that God will not only just touch my life, not only just touch your life, but that you'll bring the things that you learn or the things that you've experienced or the knowledge that you gain to the people around you. And that this is not for me. My and I've been studying a lot lately and I'm not trying to like boast in that, but I just really believe that where God's taking his church is to new heights and greater levels. And so with that, I believe that he's calling his people to, to know more about him. And if this is your first episode joining with us, I just want to say welcome and also encourage you. Encourage you to go watch the previous episodes and really fall in love with Jesus. And so our mission here is to pursue after God as he relentlessly pursues after us. And if you can just take this moment right now to share this podcast it would do so much for us to help us grow, help us expand. And I'm believing, like I said, I'm believing God for great things. And so I wanted to open up with this scripture. I normally just dive into it, but I believe that, that. This whole subject matter is based out of these this scripture and then the next one for sin is the sting that results in death and the law gives sin its power. That's first Corinthians 15 56 and then I'm gonna read Romans 7 5 and it says for we for when we were in the realm of the flesh, the sinful passions aroused by the law were at work in us so that we bore the fruit of death. So I wanted to talk about the strength of sin and in what we've talked about so far. We've talked about being a friend of God, we've talked. The secret of heaven. We've talked about the fear of the Lord. And last we talked about the righteous confrontation. And as we've led up to this conversation that we're going to have today I want to talk about the strength of sin, the strength of sin. And I'm believing that God is going to continue to do a work and refine my spirituality, my faith. Walk with God through this because I'm speaking to me and I know that God is wanting to pull out and purify his people, but I want to also to get to a point of where you have the discernment. To distinct what's spiritual and what's of the flesh. For example, there is this saying that's in the church, You are too heavenly minded for no earthly good. There is a lot of times where we're, when we fall in love with Jesus, we've have this consistency in in, Going to church the consistency in going to prayer consistency in reading your word But at there comes a time where you begin to look down at the people around you Is because and I don't know for what reason but let's look at the bible when jesus was alive He there was these pharisees. There was these Sadducees there was these people that would develop the law that read the law that learned the law And they would teach the law but at there came to a point of where they were You So in love with the habit of the law that the law became their sin and so when You fall into that. You begin to push out the spiritual and welcome in the physical. And you will never satisfy your sense of guilt or find freedom from your desire based on the legalism that you participate in. And so the spirit of religion begins to corrupt your love for God. And that's why in, in Revelations, I can't remember Revelation, he was talking about, And he said, I want to remind you of your first love. And there's songs brought Bring me back to my first love. Bring me back to the place that I've met you. Bring me back to the moment where I've had an encounter with you. And why? Because legalism is adding one's own works to what is already completed perfect. Work of Christ, so we aren't trying to add something to what Christ already did And so it's not that I want to get into this and say that you, everyone in the church is sinners or you shouldn't be pursue after God wholeheartedly or any of that. But I want to remind you that you always have to carry that burden of the past, not in the sense where it demeans who you are or degrades your. But in the sense of where you are reminded to stay humble that God has saved you and that just as God has saved you, God is also working on other people to bring them up to levels that maybe you have passed. Maybe you have exceeded, but that doesn't mean you can look down or belittle other people around you. And when I'm saying this, I'm not saying this for the sake of that, that there are, I'm not trying to shoot. Arrows at anybody. I'm saying this because this was my mentality for such a long time and it welcomed in and invited things that corrupted my walk and so in and We can't fight for deliverance when we already have freely accepted our deliverance And so we there's a lot of times where we fight to become freer That makes sense. There's a lot of times where we fight to be more delivered And it's not the sense of we need to do something God already didn't do but we have to understand that God paid the price of sin on the cross. The Bible says, for he was slain before the foundation of the world. And there are times where we add to our spiritual walk by the works of the flesh. Now, faith without action is dead, yes, but at the same time, faith, or your actions are a response to your faith. When we put actions in front of faith, then it becomes a legalism and we have to remain. In a conviction with the lord and in a correlation with the lord's will That we understand that we cannot add to what god has already done And so we have been given divinely empowered weapons to protect us ourselves and resist the attacks of the enemy and maintain the blessing of our salvation. Because when we add things to our salvation by our works, we are then inviting curses. We are inviting people or things of this world to infiltrate our spirituality and infiltrate our consecration. But what I believe the God is doing is he is raising up a people that are willing to be empowered or willing to be what's the word equipped with these divine weapons that God has been given his church. And a lot of the times where we place down the weapons and we like to add in something that, that God never ordained, or we like to add in something that God hates or rejects or repels. For example, in the Bible, there was the story of David when he was king and he placed the. The Ark of the Covenant on a new cart and he wanted to bring it back to the city of Jerusalem And the thing about that story is that it seems efficient. It seems good. It seems right It seems like you he wanted to take the burdens off the people and he wanted to make it easier for the people and as As a leader he and his outwardly And what he was doing was not wrong. As a leader, what he was doing was caring for his people. As a leader, what he was doing was right. But that's not what God said. And David was adding something to God that God never said. And so he put this thing on a new car and there was somebody that it, or it hit a bump or some say it was poop. I don't know. No. And the car bumped and it jolted and the Ark of the Covenant was falling over. And so a man put out his hand so he could stop the Ark of the Covenant from falling over. But when he touched the Ark of the Covenant, he died. Boom. Dead. And when we read this story we, we try to Read it in the sense of that. So it's so holy That this man touched it and he began to fall over and he died. Yes, although that is true, but maybe just in a different perspective, maybe god wanted to do something different Maybe god wanted to tear down the system that man placed up maybe instead of i'm placing on the ark of the covenant god was showing this that the Ark was not meant to be carried on a cart, but it was meant to be carried on the shoulders of man. Maybe God was trying to say, I understand your system. I understand that it's efficient. I understand that was a burden to your people and you were being a good leader of trying to take the burdens off, but that's not what I told you to do. And what I told you to do was continue to carry this burden that's on your shoulders because what You can carry the things of this world can't what you can carry I want you to carry what only you can carry because what you carry is my glory And what I want to place on your shoulders is what I want my people to bear and so David Was repenting as he was walking this ark of the covenant Back to the place and he had on the shoulders of men and sometimes we get so lost in our culture today in christianity We get so lost in the systems. We get so lost in the structure We get so lost in the the order of service that we don't allow god to tear down things that he wants to tear down and place his spirit on the shoulders of men Meaning we don't give room for the holy spirit to move Sometimes we have to not contain God in the structure of the system. But instead we have to bury, or carry the burdens of His glory. Because God's glory is burden. But the thing is we've put the law, and we've put the system, we've put the works in intertwined with the spirit. And that becomes legalism. We have been so structured mindset that we forget the spirit. And see, here's the thing is that God hates sin. And so he hates when we put things in front of him or we, he hates when we add things to the freedom. But the thing is that his never ending love is the thing that Oh, outweighed the hate for sin. And so what he did is he sent his son to take out legalism. So we no longer have to go to a temple to sacrifice on behalf of our sins. He sent his son to break the veil. So now everyone has access to his presence. And there are so many times in our lives where we permitted, actions to dictate the spirit and we allow ourself to say it's not a sin because the bible never said it's a sin and we give us these parameters based on what the word of god says although that is not wrong but then we are saying that there is no room for interpretation in our life meaning that as i said in previous episode it was a sin for me to play video games at one point in my life why because i made that video game an idol The Bible never said anything about video games. The Bible never said anything about modern day society, how it's so easy for a 21 year old, or I'm 27, to go to Circle K down the street and buy a big ol bottle of alcohol. The Bible never talks about the ease of access to sin. In our modern day society, the Bible never talked about my phone. The Bible never talked about the times where you could be up late at night looking at things that you shouldn't be looking at. The Bible never talks about the ease of access of sin in today's society. But the thing is that we have, that the Old Testament people of God didn't have, is the conviction of the Holy Spirit. Because now, because Jesus came and tore the temple and tore the veil in two, we now have access to the Holy Spirit that corrects us and aligns us to His will. And we take out our actions to make, that, that, that bring in and invite legalism and the spirit of religion, of our Christianity, we take it out and we now just, Are focused on him and what he has for us and god if you tell me that I need to stop eating chocolate lord I'll stop eating chocolate though. It doesn't say it in your word god. Maybe I have later down the line I'm gonna develop diabetes and diabetes is gonna eventually hurt my family. And so god you're telling me to stop eating chocolate Okay, i'll stop Maybe there's something that is in your life where god is telling you to stop doing or to do And that we've done said it's not in the Bible. So our actions are now dictated, but what our interpretation of what isn't in the Bible. Now, let me explain this. And so we base are on the word of God. We, I'm sorry, we justify our actions based on the word of God. And so we hang on the, Let me, many times we justify our desires, but what the word has said, for example, God didn't deliberately say drinking was a sin, and I really have this close to my heart because I do believe drinking is a sin in certain areas. I, if you are not a leader, I get it. The Bible still says to be sober minded, so don't get drunk, but that, I don't want to get into this too much. Okay, so anyways It's not that it was permitted in the Bible. But we have to have the conviction of the Holy Spirit, so our actions will align with His Spirit, with our faith. And we have been enabled by our actions, though they are not pleasing the Lord, based on the black and white definition that if it is a sin or not. But the Bible says, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaks. Meaning that when we speak something, or when we are operating in something, we are unveiling our heart's desire. So if you're studying your Bible, studying your word, that is unveiling the heart's desire to grow closer to God through the word. If you are praying hours upon hours, that is unveiling the heart's desire to grow closer to God through prayer. If you are fasting, that is unveiling your heart's desire to deny yourself, deny your flesh, in order to get a greater connection to God. But, that also works in the opposite way, where if you are indulging yourself with all of the chocolate that's in your house and you're eating constant chocolate, you are unveiling your heart's desire that chocolate is your god. Or let me explain it, that your desires of your taste buds, are, is an idol. And see, this is where we get into the place of where we need to tear down every idol of our heart and open our heart and allow God to examine everything that's in us. That's why David says, Search my heart, O God, that you may see what is in me that is not of you. And that you would remove it. And the treasure lies within our heart. And we permit ourselves to do the desires. To do our heart's desires. Even though they don't please the Lord. Because we Justify what we're doing. Based on what God didn't say to do. Or didn't say. Or didn't talk about. And so when Israel asked for a king. And I'm want to go on this further. When Israel asked for a King's God desire was for them, was to be ruled by him. But because Israel never, it, it never said in the in the Bible. At that time, it was the law. And at that time it was the Torah. Yeah, it would be the five books. Anyways, it was justified for them to ask that. Why? Because the every, they said every other nation has a king. We should have a king. And so they justified their actions based on what God did not say to do. Or God didn't say it. And how does that, and so we get into this realm of momentary satisfaction for long term disobedience. Because they wanted to be governed by a person, like all the other nations, they justified their actions and by the willingness to give their, them to their desires. But because they were covered by men, they went through more afflictions because of their desires, that if they were just ruled by God, they would have avoided. Because, and here's the thing, because Here's the thing that I want to talk about. Is that we have permitted a lot of things in the Big C Church because God didn't say, but if we were just ruled by His Spirit, He would make every crooked way straight. And, like I said, I don't want to be in the sense of a righteous A false righteous spew or but there has to be a moment where we allow the Holy Spirit to convict the hearts of men. We have to allow and the reason why I wanted to talk about sin so much is because we have allowed the sin to creep in the name of the lo and we. We mask it by saying it's the Lord's will or in the name of the Lord, or we mask it with the spirit of religion. And this is the thing is that the devil has come accustomed to sending the people to church so that they can be hurt by the church. But the thing is, if the church woke up, and started to refine their ways and not allow the actions to dictate their faith, but allow their faith to dictate their actions, then we would welcome these people that the devil is sending and then break them out of bondage. And then the devil will stop sending his people and we as a church will go out from and reach the souls that are lost in the world. See there's so many videos that I see on YouTube or, not YouTube, TikTok, that where these preachers, they will go into these, Where, whether they're LGBT plus communities. Did I miss a letter? Whatever. Oh, or they'll go into these Satanists communities. And they'll be like, listen I understand what you've gone through. I understand that you've been hurt by people. I understand you've even been, sometimes been hurt by the church. But let me tell you something. God wants to love you. And, oh, I'm sorry. God loves you and wants to show you his love. And they'll be. in a way preaching but conveying their truth, and out of that, through that, their actions were then dictated by their faith, knowing that even in the midst of all the, Chaos is going around them even in the midst of all the demonic things that are happening around them They are willing to stand on the faith that God placed in their life and speak the truth to people That have been broken and in order to get to that point We have to understand as a church that we need refining in the church. We need to be cleansed in the church We need to be elevated in the church because sometimes our desires of the people Our desires lie to us in what we want. Sometimes our desires are the things that invite temptation. Sometimes our, and let me explain, let me even go in the Bible. The Bible says every temptation comes from our evil desires. And so our desires, when they outweigh God's desires, we are then giving our desires to the flesh. And see, here's the, here's let's get into the let's get into the Bible. 2 Corinthians 7, 10, it says, Godly sorrows brings repentance, and that leads to salvation and leaves no regret, but worldly sorrow brings death. And this is where the difference between a humble heart and the difference between a spirit of religious heart. A spirit of religion will say, Lord I forgive me. I sinned against you Lord, have your way. And then the next day fall back into what they're, what they did. Now, a humble heart will say, Lord, I sinned, forgive me. And even when that temptation comes back up, they might try to reach for it, but then get the conviction of the Lord in their heart, and then they'll pull him away. You could get to the point of where you're almost there, but the conviction of the Lord will then begin to stir in you, and then you will be pulling yourself away, and may have to come through a process of denying it, constant, and constantly. But the thing is that self control is a A fruit of the spirit. And here's the thing, is that when you operate in self control, you are killing your flesh's desires. And so here we go. We first were operating in a, we're talking about the spirit of religion. We're talking about the, that law feeds sin. Law is enabled by sin or sin is enabled by the law. Sorry. And so this is where we have this slippery slope of not denying your flesh over and over again, where we then invite the things of this world. But because we have no structure of, let me rewind. When Adam and Eve were in the garden, God said, This garden is yours. Tend to the garden. Just don't eat of that one tree. The Bible says when Eve was tempted by the enemy, she looked at the fruit, and it looked pleasing to the eye. And then he said, did God say that you would if you looked at the fruit or touched the fruit, I can't remember, you would surely die, and I'm sorry. Eve said, if I touch the fruit, then I'll surely die. Actually just go up to that. It's Genesis. And the woman said to the serpent, We may eat the fruit of the tree of the garden, but the fruit of the tree on which is in the midst of the garden, when God said, You shall not eat, nor Shall you touch it lest you die. The Bible never said, or the Bible said that God said, you shall not eat of it. She, the woman, added that you shall not touch it and see this is an example of the law feeding sin in because she was adding to the basis of the law. She added, I can't eat it, but I also can't touch it. God never said you weren't able to touch it. So then she is now inviting this For God knows, and then the serpent responded, For God knows That the day you eat of your fruit, it will open your eyes. So we see, we have an experience here where we see this peeling back the heart of man. All want an experience, an encounter. We all want to fill the void in our heart. And the problem is with this situation Eve wanted to fill a void in her heart where she could experience and see things in a different perspective. Said, you will be like God, knowing good and evil. What's crazy is that in this time, there was no evil except for in Lucifer, but knowing what's also crazy is that they already were like God. They already were made in the image of God. The Bible even says, Let us make man in our image. So they were already like God. But God never said anything about evil. Until this point. That we know of. And so what was manipulated was the Word. And became a form of law. That then was feeding sin. And so sin was enabled by the law. So the strength of sin is the law. The strength of sin is the law. And I want you to, so now we have where we are in the basis of our conversation. In the base of our conversation. We've said that, Sin, or I'm sorry, the law is the strength of sin, but now to counterbalance or to counter attack this sin or the law, what we need is self control. That is a fruit of the spirit. And in order to have self control, what do we need? We need a reformed mind. And in order to get that reformed mind, we need to live a crucified life. By living a crucified life, we are able to neutralize any attack of the enemy that he would try to wage against our flesh. Fleshly weapons are not suitable for spiritual attacks. warfare, spiritual adversaries, no matter the external projection of holiness slash religion, the position of our heart is what attracts or repels God. This is where we are saying, no matter the law that we have placed over our life, The one thing that attracts God is our heart. What's in our heart or rejects God is our heart. What's sitting on the throne of our heart? Is it the law that we project or protect? Or is it the love or God that we have enthroned? Or we have empowered in our life? In Ephesians 6, the Bible says we wage war not against flesh and blood, but against principalities. Meaning what? Meaning we are spiritually attacking the enemy, but first we must put on the whole armor. And this is what I was talking about earlier, or a reference to the armor that God has given us. In order to put on the full armor, we must die to our flesh and submit to the Holy Spirit. When we are When our flesh is under the submission of God, we wage war against the enemy, and we unveil our heart's desires to God so that we can operate by His mighty power. And then in Romans 6, 6, and 7, and 11, it says, know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with or let's say it like this for we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by the law might be done away with the body ruled by actions may be done away with That we should no longer be slaves to sin or slaves to the law Because anyone who has died has been set free from sin In the same way count yourselves dead to sin, but alive to god in christ Jesus count yourself dead to the law But alive in Christ, Jesus, Nate, you could be saying the Bible says, Jesus said I did not come to destroy the law, but to build it. But the thing is that the reason why Jesus is saying that is because yes, there should be parameters of your walk with him. Yes, there should be borders and boundaries. That you don't cross, but at the same time I need to build a bridge from what is law and to my spirit so that you can be governed by the spirit. A reformed mind expels sin. A reformed mind builds up boundaries to sin while also allowing and inviting the Holy Spirit to rule and govern over your life. Consecration is determined by the proximity you have with God and in order to have a proximity with God You need to break the veil of the temple break the veil of the law that we have been governed by That have enabled and empowered sin in our life And let me explain what that means because sin is not just something that is supposed to be demonic Sin is something that we place in between us and God And whatever we place in front of us in God, we are then building up a wall, a barrier that was never meant to be there because the bridge of that was God's love and mercy that he sent his son to die for us. And so he bridged and broke the barrier that was hindering us from getting in tune with God. And so a consecrated life is a life that is near Jesus. The closer proximity, the greater consecration. In prayer, we are sacrificing our life for God. And the problem is that a culture Christianity is a consumer Christianity. It is a Christianity in which the devil pushes people to instead of away from, so their foundation is built upon an emotional wooing or an emotional experience. So they are building up the law in their life instead of Jesus Christ. Consumer Christianity has placed the person in a position. in the center instead of God. It has placed you on the throne of your heart instead of God. It has placed the Allah on the throne of your heart instead of God. With self at the center, we've moved our power away from God. We moved our position away from God. And I want to leave you with this last Scripture Matthew 21 10. It says, man, I'm going a long time, Matthew 21 10. It says, and when he had come into Jerusalem, all the city was moved saying, who is this though? And the word moved here is I wish I could say it, but it's seal. I'm gonna go with that. And what that means in the Greek is to shake, to agitate and to cause tremble. Meaning when Jesus showed up on the scene, what happened was the earth began to shake. When J and so let me say it like this. Whenever Jesus shows up on the scene, barriers have to be broken. Whenever Jesus shows up on the scene, foundations begin to move. When Jesus shows up on the scene, whatever there is that Matter of fact, let's go into this. When the Ark of the Covenant was brought into, I believe, the land of Babylon, let's say that, because I don't remember. And it was placed next to Dagon one of their altars for God, or for their God. And it was placed next to Dagon, and the Ark of the Covenant, what ended up happening is they went to sleep, came back, and the Ark of the Covenant pushed over, not literally, but Dagon fell. And they were like, oh, that's weird, so let's put it back up, and then the next day came, the Dagon was on the floor again. Why? Because when there, the Spirit of God shows up, when Jesus shows up, we, everything that is an idol begins to fall down before him. Because what is an idol? Is ruled what has ruled our life when Jesus wants an encounter with you will begin to shake it and shake it and break it. The thing is that when Jesus has an encounter with you, when Jesus shows up on the scene, every foundation that's not set on him will begin to shake and to be expelled. And the thing is that, that Beauty of the intimacy that you have with that encounter. The beauty of that encounter with God will begin to align all your desires with his because you will just be so enamored with what he's done, with what he will do, and with the promises and the plans and the purposes and the hope that he's instilled in you. And there will be such a shaking and a movement that started in your life that you will say, God, I don't want to go back to where I was. God, I don't want to be. Self righteous. I want to be righteous because of you, Lord. I don't want to be empowered because of the law. I want to be empowered because of you, Lord. I don't want to give room for sin, Lord. I want to give room for your spirit, Lord. I don't want to be governed by the things of this world. God, I want to be governed by you. I don't want to allow my actions to dictate my faith. I want my faith to dictate my actions. And so allow God to come in agitate, come shake every foundation in your life. That is not him. Amen. I want to thank you guys for joining this week's episode of Relentless Pursuit. I know God is doing a great thing in this podcast, and I know I'm believing for big things. I'm believing for big things. Not just for me, not just for RP, but for everybody. I believe, and what I've seen spiritually Is that there have been principalities that have governed and ruled dominion or domains places, cities. And I believe God is rising up a remnant, rising up people, warriors that are willing to push back darkness with the with light. The reason why I'm getting into this is because I believe that the church is going to rise up in this last hour Where Jesus is gonna say look at guys He's gonna sit us down around the table and say look at guys. It's time for y'all to wake up Look at the world and what I'm doing. We are moving from chapter to chapter in the book of Revelation. We are seeing the prophecies unfolding before us. I'm about to come back. It's time for you to get in motion. It's time for you to start a movement for his kingdom. It's time for the kingdom of light to push back the kingdom of darkness and go into the enemy's territory and steal souls for his kingdom. But in order to make headway in the kingdom of darkness, we have to be refined by his spirit. And so I want to thank you for joining this week's episode. Don't forget to follow, share, subscribe. What a transition to all our social media platforms. I believe God is going to do great things. I'm praying for you all. God bless you.