Pastor Geoffrey strikes again!

This week's Wed. night service was awesome. Geoffrey has been going through 1 Peter for a while now, and I really like how slow and in depth his teaching is. Specifically, we were in chapter 4, verses 1-6. The passage talks about living for God and struggling with sin. What a great topic- never gets old, everyone needs to apply the ideas in his/her own life. It was even more poignant because just the night before, my small group had been studying Romans chapter 7 verses 14-25. Both talk of being dead to sin, yet continuing to sin. It took me a few re-reads to get it crystal clear in the ol’ noggin. If we have died to our own sinful ways, why does Paul say “I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is a power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me.”? Paul had just said in chapter 6 that we are now slaves to God… I’ll keep reading both books.

Geoffrey also pointed out that we need to humble ourselves before God, and to recognize and admit our sin (He knows anyway, right?). Many of us have read or heard Psalm 139 where it says “search me God and know my heart… point out anything that offends you.” That’s just the first part of what we have to do in our struggle with sin. The next step is to allow God to break you of that sin, to really give it to Him. That’s the part I really have a hard time with. I can pray and pray, but when I actually have to surrender it to Him, I realize I’ve got the death grip and I don’t want to let go. I’ve been holding, hiding, excusing, and living in it so long, it will be like a part of me will be missing (never mind that it would be a good thing to loose).

Pastor Geoffrey told us 5 aspects of overcoming sin:

1) COMMITMENT- to say no
2) REPEAT frequently- identify sin patterns, then replace them with something else
3) make NO EXCEPTIONS- not one time
4) be DILLIGENT in all areas and
5) DON”T BE DISCOURAGED- we all mess up; put sin back at the cross and Jesus back on the throne of your life.

We need to protect ourselves as a soldier going into battle. How?
PRAYER & BIBLE STUDY!

“If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what you’ve always gotten.”

Check out Pastor Rob’s blog- if your mind is not already too blown away by my awesome relaying of Pastor Geoffrey’s message…