A Different Perspective Official Podcast

Some people are particularly prone to the sin of lust. Not just sexual lust – but also a lust after life. And that lust can ruin relationships, marriages and our lives.  That's why lust is one of the seven deadly sins. And it's still deadly.
It seems that the more affluent we become and the more powerful we become, the more we think that really what matters is fulfilling our every desire. I was watching a program on TV the other night which was like a panel of advertising guru's analysing different TV ads. And what became evident, over and over again, is how those ads play on this insatiable craving we have to be successful and to have and to consume.
Whether it's a 4 wheel drive or a pair of shoes, these experts tap into a rich vein of desire in our hearts. And that's what makes the world go round. When it comes to advertising all the guru's tell you sex sells, right?
And pandering to these desires, well not only don't we see that there's anything wrong with it. Well there's an old fashioned word, that word is 'lust', which kind of describes this whole rampant desire thing.
I'm joined again today by my special guest, Keith Henry. Now Keith, what exactly does this word "lust" mean?
Keith: Well as you said Berni, lust can be sexual but it's a lot more than that. It's really a drive that you have that you want to tackle everything in life Berni. It also includes arrogance. It includes power 'cause you want to control things, you want to try to take on the world, to challenge the world. You want your way. And it's this excess where you're trying to get everything that you want and denying everybody else.
Berni: Okay, so there's sexual lust.
Keith: Yes.
Berni: Now what sort of person is prone to this, this "lust" thing?
Keith: In Romans 12, it gives you the different personality types and one of them mentioned there is "leader". So a leader has to be strong, they have to take control. They have to have all these good points that, in sin in the world, we'd also take on the bad points and this is where lust comes in. That they want what they want not what somebody else wants.
Berni: It almost sounds, you're right, a leader does have to be strong, has to be very focused. People follow the leader and it's almost as though, if you take those gifts too far, then all of a sudden the virtue turns into a sin. Is that what you're saying?
Keith: Yeah. I think, in the world, we do start from the 'sin' point first and we want to participate in the divine nature, which is the proper leadership style in this case but we get corrupted by the sin. And the sin, it's very enticing, you know. You can have power over people, you can control people. You're a leader, people look up to you.
Berni: Yeah.
Keith: You know it's very enticing.
Berni: Interesting. I just want to share a story with you from the book of 2 Samuel in the Bible. One that a lot of people might be familiar with:
One late afternoon, King David got up from taking a nap. He was strolling on the roof of the palace. From his vantage point on the roof he saw a woman bathing. That woman was stunningly beautiful. David sent and asked about her and was told, "Isn't this Bathsheba, the daughter of Eliam and the wife of Uriah, the Hittite? And David sent his agents to get her. After she arrived he went to bed with her and then she returned home.
See David was probably the greatest leader Israel ever had.
Keith: Yes.
Berni: Right, he was the leader, absolutely. Everybody naturally followed David. What was his sin? (Berni clicks fingers) Lust.
Keith: Lust. He had the power, he had the control. People looked up to him and he wanted everything.
Berni: It sort of explains to me why some of these really high profile, both Church leaders and secular leaders, fall in this area. I mean Bill Clinton is a very obvious example...
Keith: Yes.
Berni: ... of a fabulous leader who clearly, this sin got the better of him.
Keith: It does. And all sorts of evangelists and people prominent. If you're prominent you have to be very careful, especially if you're a leader. These are the people that can tackle anything. They're the people that climb the mountains and you think,"'Why would you want to climb a mountain?" A lot of personality types think, "why would I want to do that?" No, they want to conquer things. See it's in their personality to go out and challenge and take control of things in people.
Berni: And you do, you actually want a leader to do that, don't you?
Keith: You do.
Berni: If you're following someone who is a leader, you want them to be in control. If a leader is weak, I mean you see it in political parties. If the leader is weak the party gets rid of that leader and puts in a new one because they actually want a strong leader.
Keith: They do.
Berni: So, there's nothing wrong with that is there?
Keith: No. We don't have enough good leaders. We need leaders and whatever it is, in the parliament or Church or whatever area, we need leaders. There's not enough good ones and we do need good leaders. There's an interesting verse in Proverbs 6:27 that says:
Can a person take fire to the bosom and his garments and not be burnt?
These people that play with fire and it can destroy them.
Berni: Yep. So what do they do about that? I mean, if you're a leader and you know you have a weakness in this area. Either its sexual and a lot of men do, a lot of men are caught up in pornography, right? It's a massive, in fact pornography, someone said, accounts for 80% of internet traffic. Pretty scary! So, if someone's caught up in that or just the lust of power or the lust for life or for the lust for, 'just go out there and get it', what can they do about that?
Keith: Well, the way out is to participate in the divine nature. In this we have to set our hearts on. Now, ours sins are passions. So what's our passion, is our passion worldly or is our passion Godly? And the way out of it for the leader is to focus on becoming Godly and in 2 Peter 1, it does actually have the virtues there and it says we can participate in divine nature and escape the lust in the world caused by evil desire, the corruption of the world.
But the way for the leader is to become very magnanimous. In other words, very giving and working for others not for what they want because they'd get anything almost, these are the leaders.
Berni: That's the temptation isn't it?
Keith: Yeah.
Berni: You can get anything because you're a leader.
Keith: Yeah, so are you going to work for others or are you going to work for yourself? Become Godly, God works for other people.
Berni: Mmm, I was just thinking about that because, I think in the work force where I've worked and there are some leaders and you know they have your interests at heart and actually, they're the ones that you have a real heart to follow.
Keith: Yes.
Berni: That's what you're saying isn't it?
Keith: Yes.
Berni: It's the leader who almost sees himself, or herself, as the servant of the people who are following him or her.
Keith: Yes, and that's the way, to become a servant or actually, to become more of a giver, you know because you've got lots to give. You know a leader has a lot to give, they have so much more energy, so much more everything than anybody else and they have to give it to others.
Berni: That's fascinating! So as a leader, you can decide to go off and manipulate and control and run over the top of people and 9 times out of 10 you'll get your way, yeah?
Keith: Yep. Who wants to fight a leader? Most personalities don't.
Berni: Another leader.
Keith: Only another leader because, you know what? They enjoy it because they like to test things out and challenge things.
Berni: Yeah.
Keith: And if you, as a leader, walk into a party, you know a room and first of all, you'll sense where the power is in that room.
Berni: Isn't that fascinating?
Keith: Or in a board meeting, you'll know where the power is and you'll watch and you'll try and conquer that power so that you're in charge.
Berni: Isn't that fascinating and the way to change that, the way to deal with this particular deadly sin of lust for power and lust for everything else is to say, "I'm going to take the gifts that I have and become a servant with them."
Keith: Not selfish, yeah that's right. Become a server, give it away and give it to others and don't be self focused.
Berni: That is just amazing. You know, God does, isn't it amazing, God does things and changes you. When you go after Him and you start focusing on Him and serving others, He fixes a whole bunch of things behind you that you don't even have to think about. He is amazing!

Funny thing, but each one of us knows we have a particular weak spot.  Maybe it's envy or anger or pride.  Whatever.  And it turns out, that each particular personality type is particularly prone to one of the seven deadly sins.  Which one is yours?
Over the last couple of thousand years a whole bunch of things has changed in society. The way we look at people, women for instance, in most parts of the world are treated much, much better today than they were way back when. Slavery, it's no longer an accepted norm in most parts of the world. Many things have changed for the better but that's not always the case.
In this so called, "modern society" we've shifted the morality line, the line between good and bad, quite a way. Even over the last 50 years. Today we're happy to say, "this goes" when back then, it didn't. Is that good or bad?
I guess from where I sit, it doesn't matter when or where or who we are, some things will always be wrong. If I picked up a venomous snake 2 thousand years ago and it bit me, well the poison was deadly. And if I picked up that same breed of snake today and it bit me, guess what; it's still deadly.
Over the last few weeks on the program we've been looking at breaking free from the power of sin. Not some old fashioned concept of an irrelevant Church, it's the stuff that we know is wrong, the stuff that ruins our lives, the stuff that's like a poisonous venom that pumps through our veins.
And so this week and next week, on the program, we're going to take a look at what are known as the 7 deadly sins. Because you know something, it doesn't matter who we are, where we are or whatever; they're still deadly.
And I'm joined on the program today by a special guest, Keith Henry.
Berni: Keith, welcome!
Keith: Thanks Berni.
Berni: Now listen; you've spent a bit of time in your life kind of figuring out how people tick and the different personality types. Why is that? Why have you done that?
Keith: About 10 years ago I was asked to talk, at a Church camp, on what our gifts are and I didn't want to do it but you know when it's a calling of God, you can't get out of it. So I studied it and gave a talk on it. Then I was captured, I wanted to know more myself, I realised I only knew so much.
But when I started teaching people about what their gift was, the whole personality issue came out. It's not just what your gift is but who are we? You know, what do we think about? What grabs our attention? In this case, what's our deadly sin?
Because there's one sin, more than the others, even though we have all of them right but there's one sin more than others, for each personality, that really is your main sin that you have to combat.
Berni: Interesting! The Bible actually talks about personality types in Romans chapter 12, verses 6-8, doesn't it? The person who wants to prophecy, the person who serves, the teacher, the encourager, the giver, the leader, the administrator. So even, even way back then God was telling us that we have different personality types. So is your observation, as you've studied, that we certainly are hard wired, each differently?
Keith: Yes, in our nature. There's nature and nurture. In our nature we're actually made and hard wired with a real motivation, a real gift and a temperament which is our style.
Berni: Hang on, you rushed over those. A motivation,
Keith: Yeah.
Berni: A gift and a temperament, just explain those.
Keith: Well, motivation is what drives us. We all have a drive and in those, each of those personality areas in Romans 12, there's actually 7 drives.
Berni: Okay, let's say I'm an encourager, what's my drive?
Keith: Your drive there is to find fulfilment in what you're doing. Doesn't have to be money, doesn't have to be, it could be saving the whales, right? It could be anything.
Berni: Okay, so if I'm a leader, what's my motivation?
Keith: Your motivation there is to have power and control.
Berni: Okay.
Keith: You want to control your environment.
Berni: Okay, so there's the personality type, there's the motivation, now what was the other thing you said?
Keith: There's temperament.
Berni: Okay.
Keith: Because we all have a style. If you look at the temperaments such as sanguine, choleric etc., we all fit into one of those areas. And that's a style that we have. Are we really out there or are we quiet and sit behind the scenes?
Berni: Oh, I'm quiet and shy myself.
Keith: No. (Berni laughs) No you're not. (Keith laughs)
Berni: Well I try and tell people I am.
Berni: Okay, so we all have a different personality type, do you think that people really, by and large, understand that about themselves? Do you think the average person says, "Well actually, I know that I'm a leader or I know that I'm a caregiver?" You know, do people understand that about themselves or not?
Keith: Unfortunately, because we have cultural influences, that sort of wipes a bit of our hard wiring away and it could be you know, your family, your school, your Church, your friends. Whatever you grow up in it tends to take the attention away from who you are. I would say, if I could just pick a figure out of the air, 99% of people have no idea who they are.
Berni: Isn't that scary?
Keith: It's terrible.
Berni: I mean, everyone's striving for fulfilment in some way, shape or form.
Keith: Yeah.
Berni: If we don't, I know for a lot of my life, you know I didn't really know what my 'shtick' was, what my 'gig' was, what I would be good at. Tried a whole bunch of things, some of them I wanted but they weren't particularly satisfying. And you get to the age, 36, 40, 50 even and people still don't know.
Keith: Well that's one of the reasons too that people have mid life crisis.
Berni: Ahh.
Keith: Because they, they work it and get somewhere but they then realise, "this isn't me, I don't want this and where do I go now? What do I do?" and they try and change. Maybe a divorce, maybe going out into the country and get away from it all, whatever, but you can't run away from who you are.
Berni: No.
Keith: You've got to find out who you are.
Berni: But who we are also has some down sides doesn't it? There's a flip side to the coin for each personality type.
Keith: There is. We've got our hard wired or Gods standard that we're supposed to meet that in the culture that we live, it doesn't come anywhere near close to the "God standard". But there is a pathway through that sin, that loss of things, that we can find who we are. We can find out how God has made us because God's made us, as you say, to be the person that He's made us to be. How do we find that?
Berni: Okay, we're going to be talking about the 7 deadly sins and Keith's going to be joining me over these next couple of weeks to talk about those things because, what I've found is, he meets you and within about 10 minutes he's got you sized up so accurately, its frightening. In fact, my wife is afraid of meeting him (both laugh).
Okay, let's look at the 7 deadly sins, let's say, give me an example, let's say I'm an encourager, which I'm not. But let's say I'm an encourager. What's my particular down fall?
Keith: The deadly sin that mostly affects an encourager is gluttony.
Berni: All right, okay. Well we're going to look at that specifically but quickly, why gluttony?
Keith: Okay, it's not just gluttony of food, it's gluttony of wanting too much of everything. In this case it could be too many ideas.
Berni: Okay, well what about a leader, what's the sort of deadly sin the leader struggles with?
Keith: The leader struggles with lust because, as we said, what drives them is to have power and control. They are the adrenaline junkies.
Berni: Oh okay, I relate to that.
Keith: (laughing) I know you do.
Berni: I'm your "run through the brick wall" sort of person.
Keith: Yes.
Berni: So I relate to that.
Keith: Yeah.
Berni: Yeah. Okay and what about someone who's a server, someone who wants to serve people, what's the downside of their particular personality type?
Keith: The server is from greed. But it's not greed that they, like gluttony, that they want more and more. It's actually a greed of hoarding which means fear.
Berni: Okay, you see, it seems to me so important because we try, people believe in Jesus right? A lot of them do and you try and you live your life for Him and then you fail and you keep failing in one particular area.
Keith: Yes.
Berni: And you feel like you're all alone but actually, what you're saying to us is, that the different personality types, well you can almost predict, fairly accurately, what the particular sin is going to be that that person falls into.
Keith: You can. And it's interesting. If I'm in a, say a dinner with some people and you start talking about things like that, about who they are, they either react "I want to know more" or they withdraw from you, "This fellow knows to much about me". If they want to know more it's a lot of fun.
Berni: Yeah.
Keith: You know, finding out who they are.
Berni: Well we're going to have that fun over the next couple of weeks because we're going to go through each of these 7 deadly sins, one by one and I'm really looking forward to it.
Keith: So am I Berni.

Every now and then we go head first – splat on our faces.  Two options.  Just lie there and give up.  Or get up, wipe the tears from your eyes and the dirt from your wound and keep going.
One of the sports that always amazes me is the hurdles in the athletics. I remember trying to run and clear those hurdles in high school but I'm afraid these little short legs of mine, well I could never quite make the grade. And one of the most difficult things I've ever seen is a hurdler in the Olympics missing one of the hurdles and going flying head first into the track. Think about it. What an incredible public humiliation. Not to mention the pain and all those years of training wasted in a split second.
The truth be known, none of us likes to fall splat on our faces. And it happens in life. And when we do, it's so hard to get up again. The easiest thing in the world would be to give up. But the truly great sportsmen and women are the ones that don't do that. They get up. They wipe the tears from their eyes and the dirt from their wounds and they keep going. Come what may, they just keep going.
Today is the last of the series of 10 programs that I've called "Breaking Free from the Power of Sin". And I just thought I couldn't finish up without spending a few moments talking with you about what happens when we go splat and fall over flat on our faces. Because that's the point where so many people give up.
Here's what we've been talking about over the last couple of weeks in a nutshell. We've been talking about sin. And sin isn't some outdated concept of an irrelevant church. Sin simply means missing the mark. Ruining our lives. Anger robs us of relationships, pride and greed and dishonesty and unforgiveness. All those things are sin because they miss the whole point of life. And you know it seems that some days that we're powerless to change them. They just keep coming back to haunt us.
So many people believe in Jesus. So many people look at the cross and the price that Jesus paid and know they have forgiveness, they know that the empty tomb means the resurrection and new life. But somehow the power of sin isn't broken in their lives. But actually it is. We're told that by God Himself.
In Colossians Chapter 1 Paul writes this:
He has rescued us from the power of darkness and transferred us into the kingdom of His beloved Son in whom we have redemption and the forgiveness of sins. (Colossians 1: 13-14)
And again in Romans Chapter 6:
For sin will have no power over you since you are not under the law but under grace" (Romans 6:14)
It's not about a bunch of rules and failing and therefore it's hopeless. No. The slate is completely wiped clean. And yesterday we talked about the need for us to have a change of heart. It's like the judicial system looks were the criminal has remorse or not in sentencing.
Remorse says that, "I know I was wrong. I see the impact, I see the pain of what I've done". And that together with God's forgiveness leads us to turn away from all that rubbish, that stuff that ruins our lives, sin, and back to God.
Again the Apostle Paul in Romans Chapter 2:
Or do you despise the riches of God's kindness and forbearance and patience. Don't you realise that God's kindness is meant to lead you to repentance? (Romans 2:4)
And repentance is a change of heart. It's a change of direction. All that we do comes from our hearts.
So many people hear that message, they accept Jesus, they have a change of heart and then they set on their journey with Jesus and they discover they're not perfect. In fact, like that athlete I was talking about before, we fall splat on our faces over and over and over again. And before you know it, the change of heart, well, it just evaporates into thin air. We lose heart. We pack up our bat and ball and we go home. Sound like anyone you know?
I want to take you to a passage of God's word that I come back to again and again and again. It's one of a small handful of my absolute favourites. Again it's written by Paul the apostle. This guy had the job of writing almost half the books of the New Testament. And you know something, he has exactly the same problem that you and I have. I'm going to read it from the Message translation because it's really contemporary.
It begins in Romans Chapter 7 verse 15:
What I don't understand about myself is that I decide one way but then I act another, doing things I absolutely despise. So if I can't be trusted to figure out what's best for myself and then do it, it's obvious that God's command is necessary. But I need something more.
You see, the rules weren't working for Paul. He needed something more. He says, "For I know the law, but I still can't keep it. And if the power of sin within me keeps sabotaging my best intentions I obviously need help. I realize that I don't have what it takes. I can will it, I just can't do it". Sound like anyone you know?
Paul says:
I decide to do good but I don't really do it. I decide not to do bad but then I do it anyway. My decisions such as they are, just don't result in actions. Something's gone wrong deep within me and gets the better of me every time. It happens so regularly it's predictable. The moment I decide to do good sin is there to trip me up.
I truly delight in God's commands but it's pretty obvious that not all of me joins in that delight. Parts of me rebel. And just when I least expect it they take charge. I've tried everything. Nothing helps. I'm at the end of my rope. Is there no one who can do anything for me? Isn't that the real question?
The answer, (writes Paul) Thank God, Jesus Christ can and does. He acted to set things right in this life of contradictions where I want to serve God with all my heart and mind but am pulled by the influence of sin to do something totally different. (Romans 7:15-25)
See, the fact of this happens to Paul the apostle who wrote almost half the New Testament. It means that it happens to all of us. It's a dilemma. I can't, I can't, I can't. No, you can't. Nor can I. That's the point. That's why we need God's grace.
The criminal, you and me, we're released from death row because Jesus paid the price. So we're standing outside the prison and the gates slam shut for the last time behind us. Now, now we have to learn to live not as a criminal but as a child of God. As someone who's free. And as any criminal will tell you, you need help.
Rehabilitation is a process. It takes time. That's how it is. And the answer is, "Thank God that Jesus Christ is that help". Because through what He did on the cross we have forgiveness. And through what His Spirit does in our lives we have the power to change.
That's what God does. Step by step you just follow Jesus and life changes. I'm not the person I once was. I stumble some days. But I get up. I say God I'm sorry. I get up, I know I've got your forgiveness. I turn to God. I keep going. You know why? Because the power of sin over my life is broken. I believe in Jesus and it just is.

Giving up smoking is a tough choice – really tough.  But it's worth it.  And in the same way – giving up some of the other rubbish wreaking havoc in our lives –well that can involve tough choices too.  But then – what's the alternative?
I wonder if you've ever heard a news story about someone convicted of a crime and in sentencing the judge makes comment as to whether or not the criminal has expressed genuine remorse. What tends to happen at least in legal systems that I'm familiar with is that the person who shows genuine remorse receives a lighter sentence than the one who doesn't show any remorse.
Why is that? Why does the legal system behave that way?
Because the role of the legal system is two-fold. Firstly, obviously to protect society by putting dangerous people away and acting as a deterrent and secondly to reform the criminal back into an effective member of society.
It doesn't matter what legal system we live under, it's never perfect, but that's the idea. And so remorse, remorse is an important step. When the criminal experiences remorse what he or she is saying is, "I understand what I did was wrong. I understand the hurt and the pain it caused and I'm sorry".
So why is that so important? Well, that's what we're going to be taking a look at on the program today. Why is remorse so important?
Last week and this week on the program we've been looking at what it takes to break free from the power of sin. Sin is the stuff that we think and say and do and feel, the rotten stuff, that robs us of life. Anger, unforgiveness, resentment, envy, pride, fear. All those things begin in our hearts and have terrible consequences on our lives and the lives of others.
I've observed on more than one occasion as we've been looking at this notion of sin and breaking free from it's power that God's opened the way for that to happen.
Jesus died on the cross. The just requirements of God, God's system of justice, had been met. Jesus paid the price for your sin and for my sin. Through Him we're forgiven. Instead of us living out the sentence of sin He did it.
And then He rose from the dead. And that empty tomb gave us a new life that starts here. We have both of those things, a clean slate and a new start, when we believe in Jesus. The problem is, so many people do but they never seem to be able to break free from the power of sin. Today we're going to talk about taking the tough decision to do just that.
Now I'd like to illustrate it using that legal example because it is something that most of us understand. Sin in God's court of justice, no matter how big or small, is punishable by one thing, death – eternal. Eternity without God and there's a name for that. It's called hell. It's something we're all guilty of so we should have to serve the sentence. Instead because of God's love and His grace God sends His son Jesus to die, once and for all, for you and me. And here's what the transaction of faith looks like.
We stand before God. We know the sentence we deserve and He asks us, "Are you sorry?" And we say, "God, I'm so sorry. I know I've done wrong". And He gives us this option. "Will you, instead of accepting your punishment, accept that Jesus has died for you?"
You have a choice. You can stay on death row and wait for inevitable or you can put your faith in Jesus and accept what He has done for you in taking your punishment for you. Put it that way, it's a bit of a no-brainer if you ask me.
So let's assume for a minute you say, "Yes God, Yes Your Honor, I accept Jesus". God's response is this, "You are free to go". You have life again, abundant life, eternal life because you've accepted what Jesus did for you. The gate of the gaol swings open and you and I walk free and it clangs closed behind us for the last time. And in fact Jesus died for every sin past and present and future. Now the question is as you or I, the prisoner, walk out of that gaol house, what are we going to do with that?
Have we truly experienced a change of heart? Has the remorse that we expressed in front of God, the deep heart knowledge of the wrongness and the guilt and the devastating impact of our sin, has that remorse done something in our heart and is it going lead us to change our behaviour? Is God's grace going to lead us to change our behaviour to reform or are we simply going to repeat the crimes that put us in gaol in the first place? That's the question. And it's at this point that we have to make some tough decisions.
Maybe you've heard people use this word "repent". Christians and theologians use it a lot and for me it felt like such an old-fashioned word. Maybe it is. But what it means, what it refers to is the decision of how are we going to live the rest of our lives once we're outside that prison gate.
See, if we experience remorse, does that lead to a change of heart? Because who we are and what we say and how we live all begins in the heart. Jesus said that.
He said, (Matthew Chapter 12 verse 34) "Out of the abundance of your heart your mouth speaks"… (Matthew Chapter 15 verse 19) "Out of the heart come evil intentions. Murder, adultery, sexual immorality, theft, false witness, slander".
Having a change of heart is a tough decision, but anybody who would break free from the power of sin, from the power of condemnation, the power of repeating the same mistakes over and over and over and over again has to make that decision.
See, sin has the power to sap the life out of us and turn us into the walking dead. And anybody who wants to break free has to have a change of heart. A change of heart that's born out of remorse. A change of heart that's born out of the joy of the grace that God's given us. Knowing that this anger and unforgiveness is wrong. Knowing that it's ruining my life and the lives of others is shocking. It's horrible. I'm sorry. It's wrong. I have to change that but I can't.
That's repentance. That's the tough decision. And that's the point at which God steps and grabs us by the hand and says, "Yes, this is what I wanted to hear. And, no, you can't do it on your own. That's why I'm going to fill you with My Holy Spirit. My power will change you. I was just waiting for you to turn around, away from your life of sin and back to me'.
The reason so many people believe in Jesus and yet they aren't free from the power of sin over their lives is because they haven't repented. They haven't turned. They haven't felt the pain of remorse and the joy of grace and had a change of heart.
It is this turning that opens the door to the power of God to change our lives. It is this repenting that opens the floodgates of God's power to change. Jesus said, you can read in Luke Chapter 13, He said to people:
It doesn't matter who you are, what you believe, unless you repent you will perish.
He's talking about a change of heart and when our heart changes God works in us and through us and then when we're tempted, you know what, in our heart we want to do it God's way and not our own way.
Acts Chapter 26 Verse 20 says:
Repent and turn to God and do deeds consistent with repentance.
It's the change of heart that gives us the change of direction away from sin and towards God which results in the deeds that flow from the heart of repentance.
The problem is there are people that are trying to change their deeds without having a change of heart. But it's the change of heart that lays hold of God's power to change what we do and how we behave. Because what we do on the outside comes from our hearts.
I'm talking tough decisions. We want to hang on to sin. God's calling us to let go through the remorse and the joy that grace brings. Without it we can't break free from the power of sin. We cannot be free from its tyranny. We just can't.

For so many people – they have stuff in their hearts that's ruining their lives. And yet, somehow, we don't think about it too much.  Except when the consequence of that stuff – hurts like hell. How do we get on the front foot?
Many people, in fact, let me be so bold as to say most people live life, day by day, without thinking too much about where it's headed. We might be focused on finishing a course of study or gaining a qualification or finding a wife or a husband. We maybe focused on some particular thing but how many of us really think, day by day, about how we, as people, are developing?
How many of us critically evaluate the stuff we see and hear and read in the media? How many of consider our ways? How many of us ever choose decisively to deal with the rubbish in our lives, the stuff that God calls "sin", the stuff that's ruining our lives? Come on, how many of us?
Who amongst us has identified that anger, lets say anger is our particular Achilles heel, that anger is robbing us of relationships and that it's time to do something about it? Not just live with it but powerfully to deal with our addiction to it and remove it from our lives. Pretty sobering, the answer is very few.
We kind of let things come along, people, perspectives, situations, belief systems and we consume them without really thinking. We react to them without really considering, "Is that right, can I come up higher?" And all the time, this thing that God calls "sin" is robbing us of the fullness of life that God always intended for us to have. Pretty scary isn't it?
Time today to talk about being decisive in guarding against sin. Sin, if you've been with me over the last couple of weeks on the program, well you would have heard me talk a few times about the fact that sin is not some out dated, moralistic concept that's clung to by an irrelevant Church.
Sin means literally to "miss the mark" both in Hebrew and Greek, in the Old Testament and the New Testament. It means to "miss the point of life". Jesus tells us what the point of life is, it's recorded in John chapter 10, verse 10. He says:
The thief, the thief comes only to steal, kill and destroy but I have come that you may have life in all it's abundance." (In fact in super abundance).
And we know that when we live a life of goodness, where we serve others, where we're honest and decent and giving and forgiving. That's where the joy and fulfilment comes from. And all that good stuff comes from God.
And in the same way that God created the heavens and the earth and all that's in them, you and me, He also created the devil, the tempter, the deceiver, the accuser. Because the existence and the influence of the devil gives us a clear choice between God and the devil, between good and evil. Without the devil there's no real choice, God loves us and He wants us to love Him out of our own free wills.
Now the devil is alive and well and the reason I believe in his existence is because, as I read the gospel accounts of Jesus' life, Jesus clearly believes in the existence of the devil and there's a powerful passage written by the apostle Peter. You can read it in 1 Peter chapter 5 in verse 8. He says:
Be sober, be alert. Your enemy, the devil, like a roaring lion is on the prowl looking for someone to devour.
In other words, be on your guard and it's something that Jesus said over and over and over again to His disciples.
Luke chapter 12:
And He said to them, "Take care; be on your guard against all kinds of greed because your life doesn't consist of the abundance of possessions."
Luke chapter 17:
Be on your guard! If another disciple sins, rebuke the offender and if they repent, forgive them.
Luke chapter 21:
Be on your guard so that your hearts aren't weighed down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life.
See, we trump along living life without thinking too much and then, when sin racks our bodies, all sorts of sin. Have a listen to the list:
The acts of a sinful nature are obvious; sexual immorality, impurity, debauchery, idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissentions, factions, envy, drunkenness. (Galatians 5:19)
The list in Galatians chapter 5. When that sort of sin racks our bodies and we feel the consequences, we kind of behave like there's no devil. We behave as though we don't have a sinful nature. But there is and we do. You don't have to look very far to realise that's true. The devil is alive and well and he plays on our selfish desires and we live them out and they blossom like a cancer that robs us of life.
The apostle Paul, giving the reason why he forgives other people says:
In order that satan will not outwit us. For we are not unaware of his schemes. (2 Corinthians 2:11)
Jesus was tempted in the desert by the devil and when He withstood all the temptations the devil could throw at Him. Right at the end of that when the devil leaves Him, you know what it says right there? In Luke chapter 4, verse 13.
When the devil had finished every test, he departed from Jesus until another more opportune time.
The devil was planning on coming back to tempt Jesus again. And if that happens to Jesus, I've got to tell ya, it's going to happen to you and me. I guess what I'm saying is this. You and I know that sin robs us of life, it ruins our lives. But mostly we only focus on it when the pain of its consequences are so acute we can't miss it. When an argument's raging or a relationships falling apart.
But actually the devil is roaming around 24 X 7, like a roaring lion waiting to devour someone. You and me, he is and he does and our part is to say, "you know something, it's time for me to get serious about this. It's time for me to decide that I am going to deal decisively with sin. It's time for me to be on my guard."
The other day on the program I was talking about how, in my life, I spend daily time alone praying, with the Lord and reading God's word and spending that time with Jesus. It is critical in me living out the victory over sin that Jesus purchased for me on that cross. And you know what that times about? It's about getting my heart and my mind focused on God and just being alert, getting myself "on guard".
It's about being vigilant. I am not going to experience the power of God that gives me victory over sin, unless I'm deliberate about it. Can I tell you something? Neither are you because the devil is not going to hand this to us on a plate, we have to take it. Israel had to take the Promised Land, battle after battle. It's the same with us. We have to take it. It's how God involves us in the partnership of living out our new life, our eternal life. It's a marvellous thing!
We need to get deliberate and get decisive and identify, "what's my particular Achilles heel, my weakness?" We're going to be looking at those, next week on the program, with a special guest. What's my weakness? I need to identify it, I need to pray about it and I need to be ready because I know that the devil is going to come after me in that area. We need to have responses in place. Paul puts it this way in Ephesians chapter 6, verse 11,
Put on the whole armour of God so that you may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil.
Can I tell you something? If you and I are going to break free from the power of sin, we have to do our part. To join hands with God, to be alert, to guard our hearts and our ways and our thoughts and get into the battle because a battle it will be. Come on!