Walk the Walk
Whether you are a new believer, a long-time believer or a pre-believer this podcast is for you! Walk the Walk will help answer some questions you may have. I will talk about the Bible...and what it means to me. Not only will I share, but guests will be invited to share their own stories on how God is moving in their lives. You will be encouraged, uplifted and hopefully you will want to seek God to be a part of your life. You are welcome here.
Walk the Walk
Understanding Your Sin and How to Overcome
What if you had a roadmap to transcend human frailty and embrace divine purpose? This episode promises to guide you through the profound and transformative journey of Christian salvation and the understanding of sin's intricate nature. Together, we explore the eternal significance of Jesus' sacrifice, offering salvation from an otherwise inevitable eternal separation from divine love. We unravel the complexities of sin, not just as actions but as thoughts and words that deviate from God's will, and emphasize the critical importance of repentance and striving towards a life modeled after Christ. With Romans 6:6 as our anchor, we encourage shedding old tendencies and listening to the whispers of the Holy Spirit to avoid the pitfalls of willful sin.
But the road to spiritual enlightenment is not without its trials. We confront the relentless pull of earthly desires and acknowledge the struggles that test the perseverance of our faith. Yet, in moments of weakness, we find solace in the unyielding strength offered by Jesus, whose grace and mercy know no bounds. Our conversation is a heartfelt reminder of the boundless love and forgiveness available to us, even when we stumble. Stay true to your spiritual path, and look forward to the comforting promise of one day hearing, "Well done, my good and faithful servant" as you reach the ultimate destination of a heavenly embrace.
Hello and welcome to Now. I'm a Christian. Now, what I'm hoping this podcast is helping you to understand what it means for us as Christians. Sometimes we hear these terms and phrases being thrown around, but really we don't understand them. I'm not even talking about those who have just recently accepted Jesus Christ as their Lord and Savior. I'm talking about people who have been Christians for years and I think you know people go. Well, you know I don't need to know all that stuff, but we do need to know all that stuff, especially if you are helping somebody else come to Christ. They may have questions for you and we need to be as prepared as we could possibly be to help another Christian in need.
Speaker 1:So we talked last time about Jesus dying on the cross for us, and some people say I wasn't even born at that time. How could he be dying for me? Well, jesus has died on the cross for all humanity, in the past, present and future, for all people. So that's the blessing is that he died for you. Yes, you were not born then, but God knew you. God knew who you were before you were even in your mother's womb. So that's what Jesus's death on the cross meant for us. And then you ask well, what am I saved from? Wow, that's a loaded question, because what you're saved from is eternal hell, a life of misery and misery probably is a mild word compared to what real hell is like. People and I think I brought this up people talk about hell as being your most horrible fear. Maybe it's spiders, maybe it's clowns, and living in that 24-7, every day, forever. That to me is just astoundingly scary, and so that would be. Maybe that's what hell would be like. But I do know hell will not be a place that will be a place you can escape, because you cannot. It's not a place where you're going to party with your friends, because you will not. Hopefully, you or your friends won't even be there to even have to discuss it. But it's not like what you think and I know people have joked about it like, oh, I'm going to party in hell with my friends and we're all going to be having beer. It will not be like that, so do not glorify something that horrible. So you are being saved from hell if you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior. So that's what Jesus' death on the cross, means for you that you are being saved from the worst life possible. Now again I get questions about well, define sin, and that's a great question.
Speaker 1:Sin refers to any thought, word or deed that goes against God's will and moral law. You know it separates us from God. You know God cannot be in the presence of our sin. That's why we have Jesus, the perfect lamb, who stands before God and stands between me and God. When I die and I get the credit for Jesus Christ's perfection, god will see no sin in me because he's not going to look at Tina and say, oh, he's going to look at me because I've accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior and I get the credit of Jesus Christ. But that doesn't mean that we can be willful and sin our life. Now I've heard people say that they said, well, I'm saved. You know, it doesn't matter what I do, I'm still going to do blah, blah, blah, blah. I'm saved because I accepted Jesus Christ as my Lord and Savior. But you know there is this thing, it's called willful sin.
Speaker 1:Sin that you know go against God's word, you know goes against what God expects from us. Sin that you just say, eh, he created me this way, I'm okay, it's okay, I'm going to heaven. Now I'm not here to say that you will or will not go to heaven in that, but I am here to say that you have to repent, turn from your ways and try your hardest to live a life of sinlessness. I know that's hard. Our thoughts get away from us, our mouth gets away from us and our actions get away from us, and we have to be very careful. We have to call upon the name of the Lord to say you know what you need to help me. I'm struggling with my sin. God, I know your grace will cover me and the work of the Holy Spirit will nudge me. And let me know.
Speaker 1:Now remember, we talk about that Holy Spirit. Holy Spirit is the one that will nudge you and say, hey, whoa, whoa, whoa, this is sin, this is not what God wants. And when you ignore that sin or that nudging, or you just flat out disrespect it, that's what we call blasphemy, blasphemy against the Holy Spirit, not listening to what the Holy Spirit is telling us. We should do so. We must not live in willful sin, intentionally doing wrong, intentionally doing wrong, thinking that, ah, god's okay with this. He created me this way and we're going to talk a little bit about that, so you do need to die to your sin. Jesus Christ died on the cross. He died to the sin for us.
Speaker 1:Now we believe that dying to the sin is more of a spiritual sense. That means, when you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're called away from your old ways, the ways that kept you in bondage, captive ways that you just felt like I can never get away from this. And now, once you accept Jesus Christ as your Lord and Savior, you're shedding that old sin and taking on your new, christ-like behavior. In Romans 6.6, it says we know that our old self was crucified with him so that the body ruled by sin might be done away with that. We should no longer be slaves to sin, and when somebody is a slave to someone or something, they have no power over themselves. Something else has power over them, and that's what sin is. You're allowing Satan to have power over you when in fact you don't have to live that way. Dying to your sin is rejecting your sinful behaviors and your desires, allowing God to transform you into the person that he meant for you to be.
Speaker 1:I know it's a daily struggle, some of you who may be addicted to alcohol and drugs and a way of life that you don't really know how to give up, but seeking God and praying and asking him to help you to get away from that sinful God knows your heart to help you to get away from that sinful. God knows your heart, he knows that you seriously want to try to give up something and you just are struggling. He knows that. He knows you're trying. He knows that every single minute of the day you're trying. That's why people who are in AA have a person that they can rely on to kind of help them with their struggles and with their addictions and with their inability to control his or herself. That's why we call upon God. Then there are those, though, who say I really like my sin, I love what I'm doing, it feels good, it feels right, it feels okay.
Speaker 1:Some of the people I know go to churches where they have pastors that tell them it's okay. If you're in a church that's telling you your sin is okay, get out of there. They're leading you down the path of hell. Now, that sounds absurd. You know like well, they're a man of God or a woman of God. They are not. If they are telling you that sin is okay, they are a fraud. They should not be preaching that way.
Speaker 1:But hope in Jesus Christ. God understands you have struggles and through Jesus we can be made perfect. He provides a way to break free from our sin Now. He doesn't just want something just to go away, because we know what that does. It just comes right on back. He wants to replace your sin with something far better, something that leads to true life. God's love is constant, Even when we wrestle with sin. He doesn't reject us because we struggle, but he calls us to trust him, repent and seek his strength to overcome.
Speaker 1:God's very patient with us. You know, I know of someone right now who had a life of drugs and just lived a horrible life drugs and just lived a horrible life and then was set free. But now this person has now around other people who are doing that old lifestyle that they had and they've weakened. Doesn't mean that that's the end of them, though. That means they can come back to Jesus and say I've gotten off the path. That happens People get off the path and then God says come back. Come back. If that's you, don't give up, never give up. Always seek God as best you can. Why can't you stop sinning, even though you try. That's such a great question. The struggle with sin is just part of our life. It's there. We all struggle with sin. That's just what God knows will happen to us, and he is very patient and he gives us hope. Don't give up. You have to rely on God's grace and the power of the Holy Spirit and continually grow. You know, christians can become overcome with their sin.
Speaker 1:However, complete perfection is something that Christians believe. Only you will achieve that when you die and are in heaven. There's nobody walking on this earth as a human being that is completely perfect. It's just not the way it is Now. I know people that are close to it, though I do. I have some friends who I just think, wow, man, I would love to be like them. They're always in prayer Because you know what they know. They have to be in constant prayer Because Satan is seeking them out, knowing that they love the Lord. But that's what's going to happen. He's going to be nipping at your heels. Come on back. Come on back. Remember how much fun we had when we did this. Remember how much fun you had when you did that. Oh, you were in that relationship and it was so much fun and perfect. And that's what Satan does. He makes you think, oh, those things were good, those things were fun.
Speaker 1:You know, we just can't overcome our earthly desires, and it's really hard. You can't overcome them on your own. You need the strength of Jesus and the hope and the grace and the mercy that he extends to us. I know there are days for myself that I think I can't. It's just too hard. You're going to think that too and you're going to feel that too. And, yes, it is hard, but you will win.
Speaker 1:I promise you, sticking close to Jesus, there's going to be days. At the end of the day you're just going to say Lord, I messed way, I messed this way up. I don't even know if you're going to forgive me again. And he will. He absolutely will. That's the love of Jesus Christ. He will love you, forgive you and give you one more chance, another chance, another chance.
Speaker 1:Until you say no more chances, I reject you, I'm done. I'm going to live this life the way I want and I don't want you in my life. Christ will say, okay if that's what you want, but he doesn't want that for you. So don't do it. Keep trying, keep going. We know the struggle is real, but I'm going to tell you what the payoff is real too, and Jesus will be there for you. So, as you start this journey, or if you've been on this journey and you find yourself on and off the path, keep trying, don't give up. Jesus is waiting on you. And that day when it's your time to find your, keep trying, don't give up. Jesus is waiting on you. And that day when it's your time to go to your heavenly home, well done, my good and faithful servant, is what you're going to hear, because God will see Jesus in your place.