Sermons Online
Path Out of Self Destruction
By Bishop Nicholson
Oct 12, 2008, 13:39

I’m glad Bobby survived.  When he is ready I hope to be able to offer God's love and help to him.  Bobby's story is a reminder, again, that we need to continue to pray for our people who want to self-destruct daily and that God would spare them.  What's interesting is that I know today why Bobby was spared.  It was because of specific spirit-filled prayer.  Why did God spare Bobby?  It is because God answers prayer; almost two years ago, this young man was an Army soldier who I had visited one-to-one.  After counseling with him I prayed for his protection, since he was going to Iraq as an Alaska Army National Guard soldier.  What's also interesting is that Bobby was given a wooden cross that I wore in Iraq as a reminder of Christ.  This same cross was one I gave to another soldier.  This soldier had come back safely.  Now for a third deployment, this same cross was given to Bobby for a reminder of the presence of God.  After Bobby's deployment, I found out later that he brought the wooden cross back to Alaska and returned it to the soldier I originally gave the cross to.  Incredible!

When I first met Bobby before he deployed to Iraq, I was still a US Army Chaplain with the 207^th Infantry Group; he was one of the soldiers under my care.  I had found out that he had been through a traumatic experience in a village, a couple of weeks earlier when he saw his mother’s friend  killed by gunshot right in front of him.  Bobby tried to save the man’s life but could not.  This event was traumatic; not too long afterwards Bobby went to war with this terrible memory.  He served our country and performed his duties with honor.  Over the course of the months since he returned, no one noticed the terrible depression he was under.

Now as an act of self hate, he committed a horrible crime which has impacted several native families.  I am thankful I am involved in Bobby's life indirectly through the three of the families that have asked me to intervene, to provide counsel, personal support and to pray for them.  We as believers should be praying that Bobby will reconnect with the Savior, find forgiveness, and discover and find a new life of transformation in Christ

How can a young man or women self-destruct?  There is a terrible spirit of destruction out there impacting young people.  When we deal with the spirit of destruction, the best tool is going into God's Word.  One of the big things that Paul helps us with, and we need to remind those that are hurting is that we can adopt a new biblical world view that will transform every area of our lives.  The scripture is clear and the Bible is true.  We can be transformed by the renewing of our hearts and minds.  In Romans 12:2, its says, “And do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind, that you may prove what is that good and acceptable and perfect will of God.”  We need to know.  We must have knowledge as to who we are in Christ Jesus.  This knowledge is what transformed us and keeps us from habitual sin.

Today’s lesson comes from Romans Chapter Six.  We see here that a believer who has been justified by faith and whose faith is counted as righteousness is to let his faith work out holiness.  In verse 19 of Romans 6, it says, “I speak in human terms because of the weakness of your flesh.  For just as you presented your members as slaves of uncleanness, and of lawlessness leading to more lawlessness, so now present your members as slaves of righteousness for holiness.”

The pathway of destruction is strewn with many wonderful people we have known and who have destroyed their lives and many have pulled down others into the pit of destruction.  There is a way out of this pit.  Last Sunday we learned that the beginning of the pathway out of destruction is by faith in Jesus Christ.  In Romans 5:1 we have been justified by our faith in the finished work of redemption on the cross of calvary.  The Righteousness of Christ has been imputed into us.  The gospel of Jesus;  John 3:16 is for everyone, but there are many believers that have fallen away from the pathway of peace and joy in Christ.

It is my understanding that if we truly have found Christ we will walk the pathway of righteousness.  When we find Christ as Savior we become "in Christ".  "In Christ", we find that our entire lives have been altered for good.  The Christian life should make a difference in everything we say and do.  In the case of Bobby, alcohol was involved.  I believe that our Native people must say no to alcohol because it is a remover of “all things”, it removes germs, it removes character, it removes our values of what’s right and wrong, and it can take away our lives.  We need to stop drinking and abusing drugs!

Paul makes it clear in Romans 6:1, “what shall we say then?  Shall we continue in sin that grace may abound?”  “Certainly not”, Paul says, “How shall we who died to sin live any longer in it?”

Many believer walk in the flesh, which is the carnal lifestyle.  Carnality is a believer walking in his own flesh.  If we do not walk in the Spirit, we walk in the flesh.  When we walk in carnality, there are many sins that we fall into.  Some of these sins are habitual.  I believe the way to help break sin in our lives and to break habitual sin is to know the glorious position we have "in Christ Jesus".  The knowledge of our position "in Christ" will help us and keep us from sin.  In verse 6 of Romans 6 it says, “knowing this, that our old man was crucified with Him, that the body of sin might be done away with, that we should no longer be slaves of sin”.  Also it says in verse 9, “knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, dies no more.  Death no longer has dominion over Him.”  And in verse 11 it says, “Likewise you also reckon yourselves to be dead indeed to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus our Lord.”  When we are "in Christ" and walking in the Spirit of God, we do not sin, because we are in close fellowship with our Saviour.

Read Romans Chapter 6 verses 11-14.  Here we find that we are alive in Christ.  He loves us; we love Him.  When we love him we have desire not to take advantage of His mercy and His love to allow sin in our lives.  If we love Christ we will not want to grieve His heart or His Spirit.  We don’t want to disappoint someone we love.

Just because God's grace is so powerful to save, it is not necessarily free grace.  But free grace is always a temptation to sin.  There are those that sin then confess.  They sin some more intentionally and then confess.  This vicious circle must be broken.  Paul says in verse 15-16, “Shall we sin because we are not under law but under grace?  Certainly not.  Do you not know that to whom you present yourselves slaves to obey, you are that one’s slaves whom you obey, whether of sin leading to death or of obedience leading to righteousness”.   

Again, one of the biggest keys to freedom from habitual sin is to remember our position "in Christ".  We must remember that we are loved; and because we are loved, we are inspired to love our Savior back!  When we truly love someone we will do what they desire.  Remember the Mosaic law?  Someone has said, “the Law restrains man through fear, but love redeems a man by inspiring him to be better than his own best.”  Please remember this:  The spiritual inspiration we receive is not from fear of what God will do to us, but from the realization of what God has so richly done for us.

A true believer should be ashamed of his past, but knows that he has been forgiven.  He wants to grow in the path not of destruction, but the pathway of life which is righteousness and holiness.  In verse 22-23 it says, “But now having been set free from sin and having become slaves of God, you have your fruit to holiness, and the end, everlasting life.  For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

In verse 23, the word “wage” was a ration or stipend originally associated with a soldier in military service.  Today it means payment for work done or recompense.  This passage infers that sin is work -- it is toil or labor for hire.  Sin is a battle against godliness; it brings dominance by a satanic overlord.  Sin is a slave-driving taskmaster that demands total commitment and ultimate death.  The word “gift” (Greek charisma) suggests a divine gratuity, that is deliverance from danger or passion.  Specifically it is a spiritual endowment; objectively it is a miraculous faculty.  It is divine influence upon your heart and its reflection in your life.  Sin works in you, but righteousness rewards you.  God gives us the ability to choose His grace or the wages of sin.  I pray that everyone will choose the pathway out of destruction into life offered so freely by a wonderful and loving Saviour, Jesus Christ our Lord.

Let us Pray:  Forgive us Father for our proclivity to sin and go the pathway that leads to destruction.  Help us to seek forgiveness and recognize who we are in Christ.  With this knowledge of who we are, saints seated in the heavenlies with Christ and the recognition that we can find transformation through your Word, through fellowship with other believers, help us to always seek the pathway of holiness. Strengthen each one here today.  In Christ name.  Amen.