Series: ReBoot
Sermon: ReBuild
Scripture: James 1:13-15
Ice Breaker: What is your best OR most embarrassing Valentines day moment??
REVIEW:
This week we celebrated Valentine's Day and learned a critical truth about the power of our relationships:
To Reboot our lives, we must REBUILD our relationships.
The root cause of all relational problems is SIN. In order to beat the relational odds, we must understand how sin works and operates in our lives. The book of James lays this out for us:
James 1
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone;
14 but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.
15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.
The critical truth we learn in this passage is the SIN GROWS. Our sin is not stagnant. Little lies lead to big lies. A little lust leads to big affairs. A little bit of a drinking problem leads to full-blown dependency.
Where have you seen sin grow in your own life or in the world around you?
How did this affect the relationships around it?
In order to turn away from our sins and keep them from leading to relational destruction, we learned a simple practice:
To Avoid REGRET
Practice pREGRET
pREGRET is the stopping to evaluate what your decisions today will turn into over time. It is allowing yourself to feel the regret of actions you haven’t yet taken. The Bible does this constantly. It points either to past events, or future probabilities, where we can see the effect of our sin if we do not do something about it!
When we assume our sin is stagnant, we fail to fast-forward to how that very sin may Grow. James says that sin, left to mature in our lives, leads to death! This could be the death of your control over your actions, the death of your career, the death of relationships, or even physical death itself.
APPLY:
We started Sunday's message off with a love song, "When I Was Your Man" by Bruno Mars. This poignant love song details the pain and regret of allowing your sin to come between you and the person you love.
This happens ALL THE TIME.
Songs like this are excellent opportunities to practice pREGRET! Think to yourself, "What could I do to end up in the same position as the man this song is about. What sin is currently in my life that could grow large enough to ruin my relationships?"
Maybe you have already made your way there. Perhaps you have already lost your spouse because of unchecked sin - OR perhaps it was largely your spouses sin that ended your marriage.
Maybe you are single, and are tempted to tune all of this out - what does it have to do with you anyway?
No matter where you are at in life, we all have relationships. If you are not romantically involved now, chances are you will be someday.
pREGRET is all about what you are going to do today to safeguard your relationships tomorrow.
HERE IS THIS WEEK'S APPLICATION QUESTION:
How will you use pREGRET this week to identify sins you need to turn away form in your life?
PRAY:
pREGRET takes a tremendous amount of courage and clarity. If we are not willing to be honest about our future, we will not have accurate perspective on our present. Ask the Holy Spirit to embolden you on this journey. Seek God and take action to make the practice of fast-forwarding a habit in your life.
