I've heard some people say that grace gives us an excuse to sin, but I don't
believe that's what the Bible teaches at all. See, I believe that the Bible teaches
us that when we fully receive the grace of God we actually get power over sin. So
I'm gonna share with you an illustration today and it's simply a picture of the
power of God's grace at work in our lives. So I want you to imagine with me
that there are three paths: there's one path here -- it's the path of righteousness,
there's one path here -- it's the path of temptation, and then there's a third path,
and this is the path of sin. So when you get saved you've believed in Jesus as
your Lord and Savior, you've accepted the grace of God, you're walking on this path
of righteousness, so you're walking down the lane of life and you're thinking, "Oh,
God, I'm so grateful," you're so thankful for what Jesus did for you on the cross
and you're just walking down, and your relationship with God is where it needs
to be, and, relationally, you're in right standing with God, and you're saying, "God,
thank You so much, You're so good, I love You so much, I just want to live my life
for You," and then we look over, because this happens to every single believer
at some point -- we look over and we see something on that sinful path and we
start thinking, "Oh man look at that, that looks good. I wonder if that's gonna
fulfill me the way that it's promising to fulfill me," and then as soon as we
start to meditate on that, as soon as we start to question it and to wonder about
it we move over here onto the path of temptation, and now we still haven't
sinned yet but now we're a little closer and we're thinking about this and we're
thinking to ourselves, "Oh, I know I shouldn't do that because of
what God's done for me, but I don't know like, that looks pretty good," and
eventually we move over here and now we've sinned, we've committed the
act, and we're immediately covered in shame, the devil brings all this shame
and condemnation on us and we're thinking, "Oh, God, what have I done?
Like, Jesus saved me and now look what I've done, look how I've messed this
up," and we want to get back over to that path of righteousness and we're thinking
"God, if I could just -- maybe if I could just do enough good things. Maybe if I
could just prove myself again, I could get back over here." But no matter what we
do we can't, we're stuck on this path and we're stuck in the shame, and we're
thinking, "Oh, what do I do, what do I do? I want to have a right relationship with
God," and then eventually we get so desperate that we get down on our knees
and we say what we said at the start, and we say, "God,
I have no righteousness of my own, I need Your help, I need Your forgiveness. I
can't do this," and in that moment, whether it's through another believer, whether
it's through reading the Bible, or whether it's in our personal prayer time,
the Holy Spirit reminds us -- Jesus died for you because God loves you, and you
are already covered by the blood of the Lamb -- and in that moment we're like, "Jesus,
thank You so much for dying for me, I receive Your grace right now, thank You,"
and then we stand up and we walk back over to the path of righteousness, and
now we're on the path of righteousness again and we're just so grateful we're
full of the joy of the Lord, and we're walking along and we're in this -- we have
this full confidence that our relationship with God is where it needs
to be, and we're just walking along, we're saying, "Thank You, God, that I get to be
here," but then life happens and we look over at that sinful path and we start to
think, "Oh look at that thing over there, like, I wonder if that's gonna fulfill me
this time. I wonder," and so as soon as we start meditating on that we move over to
the path of temptation. We still haven't sinned yet but the problem is we've
committed that sin before and we remember the shame, and right here,
the devil tries to bring that shame and the condemnation back in and you start
saying, "Oh you're gonna do it anyways you might as well do it," we already feel so
bad about it we're like, "Okay, I'm gonna go ahead and do it," and we move over to
the sinful path and now we're just immediately flooded with even more shame
and more condemnation. When we're looking back over there we're thinking, "Lord, what
have I done again? I've done this again," and we're like, "I want to get back over
there, God, but I don't know if I can, I feel like I'm stuck here, Lord, no
matter what I do," and then we try to do good things to move back over here but
it doesn't work, and so we're stuck here. And then eventually we get so desperate
that we get down on our knees, again, and we say, "God, I have no righteousness of my
own, I can't get back over there, Lord, I can't do this on my own.
I can't save myself," and in that moment the Holy Spirit reminds us again -- you've
already been covered, God loves you, Jesus died for you. Receive my grace today." And
we say, "Thank You, Jesus," and we stand up and we walk right back over here and now
we're walking along in the path of righteousness again and
we're thinking, "Jesus, thank You so much for what You have done for me, thank You
so much, I'm so grateful for Your love, and for Your grace." But then life happens
again, and we look back over there and we see 'that' and we start to meditate on the
sin, on the sinful path, and we move to the path of temptation.
The shame comes back in, we move over here again, the shame and condemnation
floods us, we get down on our knees, finally, and we say, "God, I'm so desperate,
Lord, I can't get back over there," and then we're reminded of the grace of God
again and we say, "Oh, oh yeah, thank You, Jesus," and we stand up and we move back
over to the path of righteousness. And I know what you're saying -- does this cycle
just keep going, and does it just keep going? If you're stuck in a sin right now
that you feel like you can't get free of, there's a stronghold in your life and
you can't get free of it, I believe this is your answer today. So we're walking
along the path of righteousness and we look over there and we see that sin
again, and then we move over to the path of temptation because we begin to
meditate on it, and then, right here -- the devil brings in that shame, that
condemnation --we already start to feel guilty for it but then because we've
received the grace of God for this before, and because our relationship with
Him has grown more intimate over time, and because we begin to trust Him on a
new level we begin to be honest with Him right here, about the sin and we say, "God,
I see the sin there and I don't want to go over there, God, 'cause I know where this
path leads, God. I don't want to go back over there, I want to be over here with
You," and then we're like, "I just, I can't, I feel like -- I can't get free of
it," and in that moment, on the path of temptation, because we're so desperate we
get down on our knees and we say, "God, I can't get free of this. I don't know what
to do," and in that moment, the Holy Spirit comes in and He reminds us -- God loves you
Jesus died for you, you've already been covered by the blood
of the lamb. Even if you end up on that path again, I've already forgiving you. And we say,
"Thank You, Jesus, thank You," and we stand up and we've walked back over to the
path of righteousness. I don't believe that grace gives us an excuse to sin. I
believe that it gives us power over sin.