Don't Hold Your Breath

Don't Hold Your Breath [music] When you breathe in I will be your oxygen [music] When you breathe out I will feel your breath upon my cheek [music] When you breathe in I will be there; you will see [music] When you breathe out still there I will be. When we first begin our relationship with Christ, we often go through a honeymoon phase. Our relationship, our fellowship has been restored with God. Our sins have been forgiven. Everything's great. And it is great! But in a fallen world, great is not perfect; and it isn't long until the honeymoon ends; and we find ourselves taking some significant baggage into our relationship with Christ. God has given us a new heart, new motivation, new direction, but our old self didn't move out during the honeymoon; he's just been hiding in the garage. C.S. Lewis once said, "You only know the strength of the wind when you try to walk against it." And what Lewis was saying is you only know the power of sin when you try to stop. And so it's now, as believers, trying to walk with God, that we start to struggle for the first time with sin and guilt. When I was a young Christian, the first thing I knew needed to be changed was my language. I spoke profanity fluently; I couldn't say a sentence without swearing. I remember going to my first Bible study and recognizing that no one was using any of my favorite words, and so I realized I needed to change. And I did. I was successful in washing my own mouth out with soap. But now, here is the illusion: anyone can change a bad habit; anyone can make a New Year's resolution. I can stop myself from speeding in a car. But changing road rage, anger, impatience ... these things are deeper issues. And I think we find ourselves, as we grow in holiness, drifting out into these deeper waters and realizing that so much of what we do is really just surface behavior and that there's deeper sin underneath. I think at that point we realize we're in over our head. I think at that point we realize we can't transform ourselves. But it doesn't stop us from trying anyway. You know I think we all have the same basic strategies in terms of dealing, or uh… covering our sin. The first, reflexively, I think we just try harder. We, uh, we thrash around and we give more effort; and when that doesn't end up being fruitful we just, uh, you know, we gird our willpower with vows and promises. I'll never do this again. I'll never do this again. Then we do it again. And, uh, to keep our head above the surface we kind of move on into rationalization or denial; and I think I think our twisted thinking here is: You know, if it wasn't officially sin, well then it's not sin. Or if someone else caused me to do it then it's, uh, then it's not sin. Well, that doesn't always work out and so we default to some kind of self-loathing. Who needs Jesus to die on the cross when we can just crucify ourselves. And so we just beat ourselves up ... "Idiot! Why did you do that again?!” I guess somehow feeling like we're able to pay the penalty for our own sins. Well at this point all of the joy, all of the vitality, is drained out of the Christian life. Our walk with God is nothing more than sin management ... just going through the motions. But in John 10:10 Jesus says— “I came that they might have life and have it abundantly.” There really is an abundant Christian life. [music] It's always been a fast and furious ride; [music] I never let you reach me. [music] Never anyplace good to hide. [music] I just want you to reach me. [music] When you ask me why I lied ... Now that we're believers confession is God's provision for our sin. And there are three components to confession. The first is the most difficult not because it's that hard but because it's foreign to us. What we need to do is when we've sinned, or rather when we feel convicted of sin, we need to stop and agree with God that what we've done is sin. In 1 John 1:9 it says— “If we confess our sins He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness." Second, we agree that what Jesus did on the cross paid the penalty for that sin. And third, we agree to turn from that sin and turn back toward God, which we call repentance. If you think about the process that you went through when you came to Christ at some point in time you realized that you had a sin problem. For instance, let's say as I'm fishing here, my mind begins to wander, ok ... and let's say it drifts to that woman whose bathing suit barely covers her over there. Ok? Now, at some point I become convicted about my sin, that I've lusted. Ok, now I have several options. I can, I can rationalize it: “Hey I'm just a guy; you know what can I do?” I can justify it: “Hey it wasn't like I committed adultery or anything.” I can blame: “What is she doing out here dressed like this?” Or, uh, I can confess. I can agree with God that what I've done is sin. “Lord Jesus, I lusted in my heart and my mind. Forgive me. I agree that Christ has paid the penalty for that sin. Lord thank you for paying the penalty for my sin.” And I agree to turn from it: “Lord I don't want to be lustful. I want to live a pure and holy life.” That's the process of confession. We do it daily; we do it hourly, as often as we sin. Well, having confessed our sin we are cleansed of it, and our fellowship with God has been restored. And that should feel pretty good, right? I mean… Breathe the free air! It should feel absolutely wonderful. But we do have one last issue and that's this— How were we going to keep from falling back into the same sin again and again and again? I think as Christians we all realize that we have eternal life and that we've been forgiven for sins, but a lot of times I think we forget that God's Spirit indwells us ... that we haven't been left on our own to follow after Jesus in our own strength and effort. God's indwelling Spirit desires to lead us, direct us, empower us, to motivate us. In fact in Ephesians 5:18 God actually commands us ... He says “Be filled with the Spirit.” Now it's a partnership; we have a role to play. God's role is to lead, direct, and empower. Our role is twofold—First we need to abide. Abide is a word that Jesus uses and it literally means "make yourself at home with." Our responsibility is to make ourselves at home with Jesus throughout the day. And that means being as intimate with Him throughout the day as we possibly can be. That means we don't just pray once a day but we pray throughout the day. That means that any time we see something, we give thanks. We give thanks all day long, praising God throughout the day. Whenever anything comes to our mind that we want to praise God for, just praising Him. And confessing sin. Whenever sin comes up in our life and we feel convicted by the Spirit, confessing it. As we give thanks and praise and confess and pray ... we are staying intimate with God throughout the day. We are abiding with Him and as a result ... the Spirit is fully free to empower and influence us. Second thing is reliance. Um, if you've ever noticed people walking around continuously with their water bottles or a cup of coffee ... what they do throughout the day is whenever they have a need they take a sip. It's kind of a reliance mechanism. If they're lonely they take a sip. If they're, uh, scared, they take a sip. If they need to be thoughtful they take a sip. Whenever they sense a need, kind of a thirst in their life, they take a sip. What it means to walk in step with the Spirit is turning that reliance mechanism toward God, and that means all day long, anytime we feel a need. “Lord, give me wisdom. Lord, I need strength right now." "Lord I don't know what to do. Lord give me direction.” As we do those two things throughout the day relying on God all day long ... abiding with Christ, staying as intimate as we possibly can with Him. As we do those two things, God's Spirit is able to lead and direct and empower us. [music] I wish that you would come back to the surface and breathe the air [music] and leave it all down in the down below ... [music] Let it go, let it go, just let it all go ... [music] Let it go, let it go ... Well, we talked about a lot of things here and I want you to be able to remember what we've said ... so think in terms of this metaphor— think about breathing. Ok, just think about breathing. Exhaling is like confession: breathing out the bad air. Remember confession is really three things— you're agreeing with God about your sin; you're agreeing that Christ paid the penalty for that sin; and you're agreeing to turn from that sin in repentance. That's exhaling. You're breathing out the bad air, ok? Inhaling is really appropriating the power of God's Spirit. That is, you're relying upon God's Spirit to lead and direct. But not just relying. Trusting, believing that God is going to do that. God commands us to be filled with the Spirit so we can trust Him to do that. So when we inhale we're saying— “Lord, please fill me, please empower me, please direct me, and I trust You to do that.” So we inhale and we exhale. We confess and we rely upon God's Spirit. And just like breathing isn't something you do once a day, it's all day long. So, too, this. All day long inhaling and exhaling. If, whenever there's sin, whenever something comes up that disconnects you in some way from the Lord, it is exhaling—confessing; and inhaling—trusting God's Spirit to lead and direct. Now, at first it might seem just a little bit awkward, but trust me, within a short time it will be as natural as … well…breathing. [music] God has created us for a new kind of life. One that's free from the power of sin, and full of intimacy with Him. It's a life better than any human mind is capable of imagining. But now imagine this: imagine trying to scuba dive with your air tank running on empty. completely cut off from your oxygen supply. That's why it's so important to draw on the power of the Holy Spirit through spiritual breathing. Without it we're cut off from the spiritual resources we need to live the Christian life. The sheer weight of our own sin and human limitations overwhelms us; it crushes us. But as we're empowered by the Holy Spirit He can take us to wonderful new places we never even knew existed. All we have to do is breathe. [music] When you breathe in, I will be your oxygen [music] And when you breathe out, I will feel your breath upon my cheek [music] When you breathe in, I will be there, you will see [music] When you breathe out, still there I will be