Pastor Tim Dilena - A New Way to Win Over Sin

I'm so excited for you. This is Foundations class number eight. You made it. So I'm so excited that this is going to be the finale. And I want to talk to you about a new way to win over sin. Carl Walenda, the great tightrope walker, fell to his death in 1978. No one expected it. It was on a 75 foot high wire in San Juan, Puerto Rico. In fact, his son, just a few blocks from here, walked across a tightrope on Times Square. Listen to what his wife said just before the fall in Puerto Rico. All Carl thought about for three months prior to the walk was falling. It was the first time he had ever thought about that. And it seemed to me that he put all of his energies into not falling rather than walking the tightrope. He was virtually destined to fall. As a Christian, we are commanded to walk. We're not commanded to not fall, but to walk. Those who pursue not falling end up really like Walenda in the Christian life. Those who think about falling and failure are never ready to walk. Today, with God's help, I want you to find your walk, your walk of victory. In fact, that's why I want to talk to you about a new way to win over sin. Someone once said, sin is so powerful it made the devil the devil. Wow. What a line. There is good news, though, for the believers. Victory is possible. The Apostle Paul gives us these fighting words. Paul's walking words are really fighting words. If you can walk, then you're fighting. Listen to what Paul said in Galatians 5.16. But I say, walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Look at just the opening word of that. It starts with the word but, which is a response word. It's a response to having healthy relationships and not hurting people in the verse prior. In essence, Paul's saying it's a fighting word. Fighting from having poor and toxic relationships. Here's the verse before in Galatians 5.15. But if you continue to criticize and come against each other over minor issues, you're acting like wild beasts trying to destroy one another. But I say, walk by the spirit and you will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Did you see it? See, Paul was saying, do you want to not fall into criticism and hurting one another? Do you want to stop sabotaging relationships? And Paul says, the answer, here it comes, is walking. What's interesting, he didn't say some religious phrases like we hear today like just bind the devil or be free from a critical spirit or go to counseling. He didn't even say just stop it. He said you can win if you walk. Walk in the spirit. What does that mean? I heard the story of a father and a son that arrived in a small Midwestern town.

The father was looking for a long lost brother when they were separated at a very young age. It's probably been decades since they've ever seen each other. Suddenly the father pointed across the square to a man who was walking away from them and said, there he goes. That's my brother. His son asked, how do you know that that's your brother since you've never seen him for literally decades? And he looked at his son and said, son, I know him because he walks exactly like my father. If we walk in the spirit, people will know who you look like. They'll say they walk like their father. The apostle Paul said walking is a weapon. It's a weapon against the sin that tries to come and grip hold of us. That's how we fight. Not only fight, but it's how we win. Listen to the second part of the verse from Galatians. He says, when you walk by the spirit, here it comes. This is the victory part. You will not carry out the desires of the flesh. Listen to the way the living Bible paraphrases this verse. I advise you to obey only the Holy Spirit's instructions. He will tell you where to go, what to do, and then you won't always be doing the wrong things your evil nature wants you to do. What is the desires of the flesh? What is that evil nature? It's our old sinful nature that is always showing up in every situation. situation, saying, choose me to react to this situation. See the flesh is anything that gives sin a chance. Jesus always chose the right response in every situation because he looked like this father. He said, if you see me, you've seen the father. In fact, there is a whole list of those desires after our verse in 19 through 21 that says this is the choose me reactions, the flesh reactions, the old sinful nature reactions. Listen to them starting in verse 19. The cravings of the self life are obvious sexual immorality, lustful thoughts, pornography, chasing after things instead of God, manipulating others, hatred of those who get in your way, senseless arguments, resentment when others are favored, temper tantrums, angry quarrels, only thinking of yourself, being in love with your own opinions, being envious of the blessing of others, murder, uncontrolled addictions, wild parties, and all other similar behavior. What a list. To try to fight each one of those would take a lifetime, and at its best, winning over those things seems to be impossible.

So Paul says, here's how you fight. Here's how you win. If you walk by the spirit, you will not fulfill those fleshly desires. Remember, what those are is, it says, choose me when you get into a situation. Pornography says, choose me when you're finding yourself lonely and wanting companionship. It is being in love with your own opinion. It says, choose me when you find yourself in a heated debate. Those desires are always saying, choose me. This is important because Paul did not say they won't come and they won't attack you. He says this, if you walk by the spirit, you will not fulfill those desires. People think that once you become a Christian, that you don't have any evil thoughts anymore. Nothing could be further from the truth. In fact, Paul says, that's not true. You will get the desire, but you don't have to fulfill the crazy, selfish thoughts that you get attacked with. Let me say that again. You will get crazy thoughts, but you don't have to do what the crazy thought says. Let me tell you where people sometimes mess up in the Christian life. Two places. They think if you're thinking about bad stuff, you're not a Christian. Or if you choose the wrong response from the Galatians bad list, you're not a Christian. And I'm here to tell you, just walk and stop trying not to fall. It helps me to walk, even though I might stumble. Tim Keller once said these words, here's the gospel. You're more sinful than you've ever dared believe, but you're more loved than you ever dared hope for. See, a Christian can commit any sin a non-Christian can, but he can't commit it without a fight in his spirits. God just wants you to walk because when you walk in the spirit, God is helping you to keep moving forward.

And we need the Holy Spirit to help us move forward. We get upset if we're not flying every single day thinking this is amazing. Some days are just difficult days. We run head into reality or a trial or difficulty. Listen to this verse of the reality of life that gets us back to walking. Isaiah 40, 31 says, but those who trust in the Lord, that's what you've done, will find new strength. And he says these three things, you'll soar on high with wings like eagles, you'll run and not grow weary, and I love the last part, they will walk and not faint. See, sometimes we turn that around. We think that the Christian life is a runway for flying to heaven, when in actuality, it's when we come to Christ, we're flying, and then all of a sudden we find ourselves going, okay, I'm just running, but most of our life is the last part, we're walking. That's the walk in the Spirit. What does it mean to walk in the Spirit? Walking in the Spirit is taking the first step in doing the right thing. How do I know the first step? When you become a Christian, the Holy Spirit lives in you, and he will speak to you how to respond to situations and will not be your normal old self. Let me give you an example. And I've been in these situations. You're in a heated discussion with your spouse over maybe the miscommunication of who was supposed to pick up your child. from school or pick up groceries. Sometimes the conversation goes like this. You never told me. I did tell you. I told you during breakfast that I had a late meeting. Well, you never said anything. And then it happens.

You remember she did tell you. And now you're in that moment. Now you are fighting a battle you've never fought before. Do I come clean or do I cover it? I have two options. Hold your ground even though I know inside of me what the truth is or apologize and confess. I'm sorry, honey. I do remember you did say that. That was my fault. Just choose the second part. You know what you just did? You chose to walk in the spirit. When you apologize, you took the step. That's the step. That's the walk of the spirit. Every time you choose to apologize to your spouse, you're walking in the spirit. Every time you choose to go to church, you're walking in the spirit. Every time you choose your family over yourself, you're walking in the spirit. Every time you choose to spend time in God's word, you're walking in the spirit. When you choose to be kind, to be generous, you're walking in the spirit. When you choose to get up in the morning and instead of immediately going to your phone or to your laptop or to the television and you decide to pray, you're walking in the spirit.

That's why it's always the next step. Next steps, even after foundations class, will be a challenge to walk in the spirit. Maybe God's gonna move in your heart and say, now it's time to serve people. Maybe he's gonna move in your heart and say, now it's time to join a connect group or maybe even possibly lead a connect group. Each step you take in your walk is creating godly habits and it'll become a desire to do it again and move forward in growth. And what it really means is you're living in victory. You're moving towards victory. The story's told about a little boy who was flying a kite. It was a windy day and the kite kept going higher and higher. Finally, it got so high that it was out of sight and a man passed by and saw a little boy holding the string. Now, the man could not see the kite, but he knew it was up there and he asked the boy, how do you even know you have a kite up there? And the boy said this, because I can feel it tug once in a while. See, the tug is the next thing to do. That tug is the tug of the Holy Spirit that says, apologize, go to church, pray with this individual, give generously. Walking is your weapon. Walking is how you win. Just keep moving forward. Finally, the best story about winning with walking

is really the children of Israel. When they left Egypt, after 400 years of being enslaved, they came to their biggest obstacle. It was the Red Sea. The Egyptians decided that they wanted them back in chains and slavery. And so they decided to come right after them. They wanted the old relationship with them, just like our desires of the flesh want us back. So they started to hunt them down and the children of Israel had the Egyptians behind them, the Red Sea in front of them. So what did God tell them to do? He did not say, fight the Egyptians, fight your past, fight the old enemy. You know what God told them? Walk, walk forward in uncharted territory that you've never known before. You're going to walk through the Red Sea. God split the sea in half. The children of Israel walked through on dry ground. And when they got to the other side, the past, the Egyptians, those that held them in slavery, began to hunt them through the Red Sea. And as they were coming after them, God brought the water on them. They beat the Egyptians by just walking forward. They won by walking further than their past with God's help and God's miracles. Every time your past tries to overtake you, keep walking.

You will out-distance yourself from the past. Your past will try to come after you, but you can walk in the spirit, out-walk it, walk in victory, win over sin by walking in the spirit. That's what God's asking you to do today. That's the way we win over sin. Let me pray for you. Father, in Jesus' name, for the precious people that are sitting, listening to Foundation Class Number 8, for this finale, for this moment, where we're going to graduate from eight courses of going deeper in God's word, let this evening begin. even be the capstone of something more, not just notes on a page, not just information in the head, but let it be freedom for the soul. Let this liberate, not condemn, just to say, God, help me walk forward. I pray every person at the sound of my voice would begin to walk in the Spirit, that they would not fulfill the desires of the flesh. Those desires will come, the desires of the past will come, but you will open up red seas, you will give strength to walk forward, and you will destroy our enemies, that we will walk not only in the promises of God, but in the victory of God. Now bless every one of these students that have decided to take the next step after their salvation. They took a step, there was a walk in the Spirit, to take a step from being born again into growth, and now let them take another step from graduation into serving, graduation into fellowship, graduation into maybe missions trips, whatever that may be, may we all walk in the Spirit. It's a new way to win over sin. Amen. God bless you.