Starting Every Day with Jesus // Breaking Free from the Power of Sin, Part 7

Sometimes the most obvious and simple truths are the most powerful – like this one.  When I spend time alone with Jesus in the morning, sin has far less power over me on those days.  So why do we miss that? Sometimes, when I'm thinking about what to share with you each day on this program, well, I get a bit embarrassed. The things I come up with, sometimes, they seem too simple, too straight forward and I think to myself, "I can't spend 10 minutes talking to them about that, it's too obvious". But then I remember that I am the master of missing the obvious in my life. Do you find that too? And I just need someone to share the obvious with me in a fresh new way and somehow God uses that to flick a switch in my heart and to solve something that's been troubling me for ages. Ever been through that? Well, I've been doing quite a bit of thinking and talking over the last couple of weeks about breaking free from the power of sin and today, I want to share the blindingly, glimpsingly obvious with you. The reason we're going to do that is because it's something in my life that has been crucial to breaking free from the power of sin and it's quite simply this – spending time each day with Jesus. Quiet time, time on my own, praying, listening, thinking, reading God's word and the thing that I've discovered, looking back on this, is that on those days when I spend that time, sin is much weaker in me. And on those days when sometimes I haven't spent that time with Jesus, sin seems to have so much more power over me. Told you it was obvious and yet, it never ceases to amaze me, how easily I can make excuses. "Well, you know, I'm too busy today to get time alone with Jesus. Yet I spent 20 minutes sitting on the bus with my mind wandering around and I had time to watch the 2 millionth re-run of MASH on TV last night". Now let me share with you what happens when I spend time with Jesus. It's not always some great mountain top experience where you know, the room lights up. Some days I feel burdened with pressures and I'm tired and there's stuff happening in my life. Other days, times with Him are real mountain top experiences. We all have these ups and downs but what I've discovered is, when I've established a faithful pattern, most mornings of spending, I don't know, 20, 30, 40, 50 minutes with Him. It's the most certain way I have of breaking free from the power of sin in my life. You know, you pray. You worship God. You thank Him. You bring your needs before Him to meet this need or give me a breakthrough in this area or there's something over here I just can't do on my own or "God I need wisdom to do this or that. I don't know how to handle this situation." You open the Good Book. You read the next chapter. I've just finished the book of 1 Samuel this morning and going on to the book of 2 Samuel in the Old Testament. You know, that's what my prayer life looks like. And what happens is this. Those times I spend, whether they're great mountain top experiences or whether today, because I'm a bit tired it feels a bit mundane, they give me a quiet confidence in my heart that my King reigns. God stills my heart amidst all the busyness and the pressures. The things that were worrying me, I leave them with Him. I don't know how they're going to turn out but God does. Just this morning, there's something new that He's called me to and I don't know the "how" or the "what" or where the resources are going to come from. It's new, I've never done this before. And I lay that down at His feet and I just felt the warmth of His smile and that quiet still voice whispering to me, "Berni, you don't need to know it all, just step out, now's the time. I am with you." And that situation with that person over there; that pressure, I don't know how to handle that. I know that God will give me the wisdom because I asked Him for it this morning and His word says in James chapter 1, verse 5: If any of you is lacking in wisdom, ask God who gives to all generously and ungrudgingly and it will be given to you. So all these things that could have been worries, that could have eaten away at me today, God has stilled my heart. And so you set off into this busy day. For me it's writing scripts, recording, helping our team here at the ministry with this and that, answering this call from that supporter and planning this new initiative and there's joy in my heart. Joy that flows directly out of the time that I spent with Jesus this morning. The quiet assurance and confidence in my heart that I know that He is with me and that the things that I don't understand and the ones that I can't do, He's got them all under control. That this joy and this quiet assurance that God gives me, those things I don't have so readily to hand on those days when I don't spend time with Him. So someone throws a curve ball at my solar plexus, something I don't expect, a shock or attack or, whatever it is, I can handle those things with grace because, because the spirit of God is flowing through me. It's not like that on the days that I don't spend time with Him in the morning. I feel the pressure so much more, the anxiety is so much more likely to, kind of, eat away at me. I'm more prone to worry about this or that or wonder how that thing over there is going to turn out. Do you hear what I'm saying? So then when the devil comes after me with a pick axe, as he so often does, what days am I more likely to be filled to overflowing with His spirit? Paul in Ephesians chapter 5, verse 18 commands us, "Go on being filled with the spirit". It's not rocket science! I know that the time I spend with Jesus, I am going to be stronger in Him than when I don't. I sin a whole bunch less on the days when I've spent time in the morning with Jesus than on the days that I didn't. It's an empirical fact, I am much more able to withstand the deceptions and the attacks of the devil on the days when I've spent time in the morning with Jesus than on the days that I didn't. Empirical fact; I have much more peace and joy and quiet confidence in the sovereignty of God on the days when I've spent time in the morning with Jesus than on the days where I didn't. And when the devil comes and tries to drag up some old failure of mine, I have far greater capacity to speak back to him of the grace of God who died for me. Do you see what I'm saying? People, people who want to follow Jesus, I know so many of them who are all guilty when they hear someone like me talk about the fact that I spend time with God in the morning 'cause I'm too busy. I want you to understand something. I don't spend time with God because it's my duty, because I have too to get a tick in the box. I spend time with Him because I enjoy it and it works. Day by day, I am seeing the power of sin, over my life, being broken. Day by day, I am changing like that little grub in the cocoon into the butterfly that God intended me to be. Hidden away in the dark when everyone else is asleep, in my prayer chamber, it's a wonderful time and I look back and see that these hidden times are the times when God has brought changes, in this sinful heart of mine that I could never have achieved on my own. Do you see? God is calling you into a tender, intimate relationship with Him. He's the one that changes us. He's the one that brings the power of the cross and the resurrection to life in us and people. If we want to have power over the sin, we just have to spend some time with Him each day. Not as a duty – as a joy!