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July 27, 2003
Gimme My Chain!
Soul of a Man Series Part 11
Speaker: Jimmy Lee
Romans 1:18-32
18 But God shows his anger from heaven against all sinful, wicked
people who push the truth away from themselves. 19 For the truth
about God is known to them instinctively. God has put this knowledge in their
hearts. 20 From the time the world was created, people have seen
the earth and sky and all that God made. They can clearly see his invisible
qualities--his eternal power and divine nature. So they have no excuse whatsoever
for not knowing God. 21 Yes, they knew God, but they wouldn't worship
him as God or even give him thanks. And they began to think up foolish ideas
of what God was like. The result was that their minds became dark and confused.
22 Claiming to be wise, they became utter fools instead. 23
And instead of worshiping the glorious, ever-living God, they worshiped idols
made to look like mere people, or birds and animals and snakes. 24
So God let them go ahead and do whatever shameful things their hearts desired.
As a result, they did vile and degrading things with each other's bodies.
25 Instead of believing what they knew was the truth about God, they deliberately
chose to believe lies. So they worshiped the things God made but not the Creator
himself, who is to be praised forever. Amen. 26 That is why God abandoned
them to their shameful desires. Even the women turned against the natural way
to have sex and instead indulged in sex with each other. 27 And the
men, instead of having normal sexual relationships with women, burned with lust
for each other. Men did shameful things with other men and, as a result, suffered
within themselves the penalty they so richly deserved. 28 When they
refused to acknowledge God, he abandoned them to their evil minds and let them
do things that should never be done. 29 Their lives became full of
every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception,
malicious behavior, and gossip. 30 They are backstabbers, haters
of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of
sinning and are disobedient to their parents. 31 They refuse to understand,
break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving. 32 They
are fully aware of God's death penalty for those who do these things, yet they
go right ahead and do them anyway. And, worse yet, they encourage others to
do them, too.
How do we effectively deal with lust?
From Scripture we can determine that:
1. Sin keeps us out of touch with reality
2. Sin takes us out of God’s natural order
Narcissism is an exaggerated preoccupation with the self
Relational Idolatry is an exaggerated preoccupation with the
other
We dig out these roots by:
- Coming clean before God and others
- Hearing the voice of our Father
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