Waste Removal
Waste Removal
“But I see another law in my members, warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord. So then with the mind I myself serve the law of God; but with the flesh the law of sin.”
Romans 7:23-25
In this verse Paul talks about delivery from sin - delivery is removal. To deliver away from something is to take it away or remove it.
Yesterday we drove to the dump. It’s how we get rid of our trash. Some people have garbage or trash collection. We choose to save some money and drive it to the dump nearby. In either case, we don’t keep our trash around. I mean, who would? It’s garbage and it’s not good for you, it’s rotting and it smells, so we throw it out.
Yesterday we talked about redemption from sin. In a process there are several things which lead up to something else or involve something else in order for the process to be completed.
So what comes after redemption? Removal.
Removing yourself from what causes the sin.
By removing yourself it won’t prevent the sin from happening again, it just lessens the chances it will come back. And if you don’t remove it or yourself, the sin will always be in your way.
I heard this from a sermon I listened to the other day - A man goes to church Wednesday night and gets saved, turning his life over to Jesus Christ. Thursday he goes back to work. And by Friday his group of friends are pressuring him into going out for drinks after work. He goes out for drinks on Friday, goes back Saturday with his friends and misses church on Sunday. He’s still a saved man, but he’s returned to his sin and it could ruin his life.
Becoming a new “creature in Christ” doesn’t fix everything. Some of the work has to come from you. And it won’t be easy. In the example above, going to church three times a week, but going to work five times a week, would make it hard to remove yourself from the things that trigger sin. Especially if going to work was an environment that encouraged your sin. This isn’t the case for everyone but it could be.
You wouldn’t quit your job, would you? You could. Maybe. Depends on what the sin is doing in your life. Maybe God will change it for you if you don’t.
My point is, sometimes the routine and the habit are what keeps us from removing ourselves from what causes the sin to keep coming back.
You have to remove yourself from the things that will tempt or lure you back into sin. You have to replace them with things of God or things that are pleasing to God.
“Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.”
1 Corinthians 10:31
Instead of going out for drinks, you should invest your talents into something that glorifies God. Read your Bible. Fellowship with other like-minded believers. Find a wholesome hobby. Get the things that will tempt the sin in your life, out of your life.
Either remove yourself from that environment or remove the environment from yourself.
“Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.”
Matthew 26:41
It’s sounds crazy to some. But I can tell you first-hand, it is so easy to legitimize things you do either as a result of your life or because you refuse to acknowledge them as bad. Reread that. You’ll say things like, I can’t quit my job, or I’ve been friends with that person for twenty years. Or, they just want me to come hang out with them because they haven’t seen me in awhile.
I’m not saying that not doing that sin anymore will be easy - not at all. It will be extremely hard. Some sin is easier to dissolve in your life than others.
People that have never had a problem with alcohol, drugs, pornography, gambling, etc will never understand. Just walking away isn’t the answer. You have to remove the possibility that the sin will come back or creep back in. And there are ways to do that. And it will require work, change in your process, accountability and management of your time.
Change your routine, know the triggers and watch for stumbling blocks along the way. If you do the same thing and expect a different result - it’s probably not going to happen.
If it’s the people in your life that are the triggers or the stumbling blocks - get rid of them. Sounds so jagged. So severe. And it is. And it works. People are encouragers, good and bad.
If you were an alcoholic and you left beer and wine in your refrigerator and tried to quit, that would be hard, almost impossible. I’m not talking about you only having a drink every once in awhile. That’s not an alcoholic. I’m talking about not being able to not drink. An addiction to something. You have to get rid of the alcohol in your life. You can’t go to a bar and sit at the bar and not be tempted to drink. You can’t hang out with your friends and watch them drink. You can’t make excuses.
“There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
1 Corinthians 10:13
Triggers are those things, well, that trigger an event. And the only way a gun fires a bullet is when your finger pulls the trigger. You have to keep your finger off the trigger.
Have someone hold you accountable. Have them check on you all the time. This has to be someone you can talk to. Someone you aren’t ashamed to spill your secrets to. They are your accountability partner. They have to know everything. This way they know what will trigger you or if you’re slipping.
Manage your time. For me, having downtime was not good. I found that if I managed my time and put things in my life to glorify God, I was able to push the sin out of my life. Prayer really does help but you have to actually pray for it to work.
It’s hard, really hard. And it can work. You just have to work harder at it. And just like everything else, once the good becomes the routine, it becomes easier.
“And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men;”
Colossians 3:23