This weekend I walked out of church with a heavy heart a lump in my throat. Pastor Mike has been on vacation for the last four weeks and came back starting a powerful new series called “Our Fight with Sin: Getting Serious About Our Sanctification”. This week’s passage was Hebrews 12:1.

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us.

Sometimes I can get comfortable with my self. I guess I don’t think that I have any huge sins in my life. I don’t have a substance addiction, I’ve never committed adultery, never killed anyone, I’m not lying or stealing–In my flawed court of law I’ve declared I’m okay. I know I’m not prefect and that I sin regularly but for some twisted reason I accept those as part of my growth process.

Maybe I haven’t done these “big” acts of sin, but all sin is big and against God (Psalm 51:4). Pastor Mike pointed out Jesus’s rebuke in Matthew 5:27-30, that if you look after someone lustfully you have committed adultery with them in your heart or in verse 22, if you hate someone you have murdered in your heart. Sin is a heart issue and Sunday morning I looked honestly into my heart and saw a conglomeration of private sins that I tolerate and I felt heavy because I saw that this isn’t okay.

It’s not enough to simply say, “I’m working on it.” Sometimes I put forth an effort but I’m not really fighting it. Colossians 3:5 says,

Put to death, therefore, whatever belongs to your earthly nature: sexual immorality, impurity, lust, evil desires and greed, which is idolatry.

That doesn’t sound like, “I’m working on it.” If I was really putting sin “to death” in my life daily I would grow in Christ with vigor because there wouldn’t be, as Hebrews says, sin hindering and entangling me.

I don’t know what might be keeping you from seriously following Christ with ambitious faith. But are you ready to throw off anything that hinders you and have a renewed drive toward holiness? I know that I am. We cannot tolerate sin in our lives. We can’t even just “work on it.” We need to do whatever it takes to get rid of it so we can persevere in our faith in Christ.

Throughout his message, Pastor Mike referred to the heart attitude of Psalm 139. If we maintained this heart toward our sin we would make ourselves open for Him to change us. I hope you will join with me in this prayer this week as we do everything it takes to put up a fight against our sin.

Search me, O God, and know my heart;
test me and know my anxious thoughts

See if there is any offensive way in me,
and lead me in the way everlasting.

Psalm 139:23-24