Hating Sin---Feel the Pain

1 Pet 2:24 He himself bore our sins in his body on the tree, so that we might die to sins and live for righteousness; by his wounds you have been healed.

God made us in His image. We feel pain because He feels pain. When it comes to the cross…Feel the pain! Our sin hurts God. This truth we must feel before we can be saved and we must continue to feel even more convicted to remain saved.
• Have you ever had someone take advantage of you and use you? Remember the pain? Now feel God’s pain!
• Did you ever have a friend who turned on you? Remember the pain? Now feel God’s pain!
• Have you ever been neglected? Forgotten? Rejected? Remember the pain? Now feel God’s pain!
Amazing grace cost amazing pain. Feel God’s pain—the pain endured because our sin.
What would it feel like if the man or woman of your dreams committed his or her life to you in marriage and then committed adultery? How would you feel? Betrayed? Hurt? Angry? Jealous? Distressed? Yes! In fact the world would seem to stop as your heart aches and breaks. This is how God feels when we are untrue to Him—when we “make love” to the world. Our sins hurt God before, but they certainly hurt God even more once we pledge to live our lives for Him.

James 4:4-5 You adulterous people, don’t you know that friendship with the world is hatred toward God? Anyone who chooses to be a friend of the world becomes an enemy of God. 5 Or do you think Scripture says without reason that the spirit he caused to live in us envies intensely?

• How does God about a lack of care, a lack of trust, about sexual sin, being pushed aside for the sake of work/school, or a lack of desire for Him? He loves much more than us and He feels pain much more than us. More love = More potential to be hurt. When it comes to the cross we need to emphatically state all the days of our lives—feel the pain!
“Assume for a moment that you fall in love, get married and have the cutest baby in the world. One day your spouse is bringing groceries into the house, leaving the door open while your child plays on the floor. Suddenly, a large ferocious dog enters the house and grabs the child by the throat ripping the life out of the baby. You enter the room; see the pool of blood and your lifeless, disfigured child on the floor. The dog is crouched in the corner with blood drooling from its mouth. Now, what is your attitude towards the dog? Do you say, “Her doggy—you poor frightened thing?” Do you take your hand and comfort the dog by petting him? Of course not! You hate that dog. You want to destroy that dog because it just brutally killed the object of your love. IN the same way, your sin put Jesus on the cross. Sin brutally murdered Jesus. So, how do you feel about your sin? Do you pet the sin? Do you go and play with the sin? Do you allow the sin to stay with you? No, you hate the sin. You want to destroy the sin because it murdered the object of your love. It killed you Jesus—your Savior.”
• Honestly, how much do you hate sin? You will find that your hatred for sin is in proportion to your love for the one who died for you. The cross speaks of that love. Are you in touch with God, your sin, and the cross?
I love my family…good, bad, fun, sad, and everything in between. And because I love them, I don’t want to hurt them. How much are you in love with God? How precious is that relationship to you? Sin hurts God. What’s the depth of your desire not to hurt God with your sin? How real is the cross for you?
Challenge: Today, make a lasting decision about your sin and your relationship with God.
• How? Feel the pain!

James 4:7-10 Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. 8 Come near to God and he will come near to you. Wash your hands, you sinners, and purify your hearts, you double-minded. 9 Grieve, mourn and wail. Change your laughter to mourning and your joy to gloom. 10 Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.