Overcoming Sins Entanglement

Proverbs 5, verse 22. Proverbs 5, verse 22. I

Proverbs 5:22 Proverbs 5:22

say this every time that I preach from a proverb,

and I'll say it today. If you have never read

the Proverbs, you need to read through the Proverbs.

There is some great wisdom in there. And you

may very well discover when reading through the

Proverbs that there are... There's more foolishness

in your life than you would care to admit. The

Proverbs are great. There's only 31 of them,

so you could read through them in a month, one

a day, and you could get through it in a long

month. And so I'd encourage you to read the Proverbs

if you never have. Proverbs chapter 5, verse

Proverbs 5:22

22, just one short little verse today. We'll

read through this verse, then we'll pray, and

then we'll get started. A wicked man's iniquities

entrap him. He is entangled in the ropes of his

own sin. Let's pray. God, we come to you today

and we thank you for this church. We thank you

for this community. We thank you for the love

that you have for us and the love that you place

in this building today. I pray, God, that you

would bless each one of us from being in your

house. I pray that... In these next few minutes

that you would help us just to get rid of the

worries and the thoughts of the world, dear Lord.

There's so much that goes on in our lives and

a lot that went on last week and a lot that will

go on next week, dear Lord. But I pray that in

these few minutes that you just would protect

us from any attacks of the enemy, dear Lord.

That we would not be drawn away, that our mind

would not wander, but that your Holy Spirit would

speak to us, dear Lord. God, there is not a good

word that I can say if it does not come from

you. So I pray, dear Lord, that it is your spirit

that does the speaking today. That you meet us

where we are, dear Lord. That you help us to

examine our lives. That you help us to seek you

for our strength as we battle sin in this world.

And I ask all these things in Jesus' name. Amen.

month we have a a little spot of land across

from our house some of you may have seen it when

you when you pass by and it was it was all grown

up it was completely just i mean it was like

a forest like any anywhere else you see just

completely grown up and we had somebody come

in and and uh began to clean it up and had a

lot of dead trees and got those trees pushed

down and and they got it looking fantastic and

then my dad has been he had worked countless

hours on the tractor continuing to smooth things

up and and mainly what i did after all the work

was done is uh i began to go out there to the

trees that remain and there are quite a few that

are still out there and you know what it's like

you can you can get pretty close with the tractor

to a tree but there's always a bunch of junk

it's right up next to it a bunch of bushes and

a bunch of briars and and vines and all the little

stuff and there is no easy way to do it than

to do it by hand and so i had to get out there

and y 'all can feel sorry for me if you want

to it was hot it was hot i'd get out there in

the mornings and it wouldn't be unbearable but

by lunchtime it would be just unbearable and

there were lots of days that i just i just toughed

it out i just got out there in the heat and i'd

work till five or six o 'clock and i would go

around a few trees and every day i'd get a few

more done and then the next time i'd get to work

on it i'd get a few more done and i would chop

the the bushes that was big enough to chop and

and we'd eat the stuff i could weed eat and and

up the trees often you would see these little

vines that had started to grow their way up and

some as small as a toothpick and and others would

get bigger and and i would pull the vines down

until i went around and i had almost every tree

cleaned up around i was so glad to get through

with that job i pretty much finished it praise

the lord i still got a couple left if y 'all

want to know the experience i'll i'll let you

come i'll show you what it's like and so i was

almost done but but there were a few trees throughout

the project that had really big vines that had

grown up from the ground and had made their way

high into the tree they were probably almost

as big as my thumb they were they were big around

and they were thorny and almost all the ones

that i'd come across i just gave a pretty good

tug and was able to pull it down with with no

issue and I was almost finished, and I got to

this vine, and I went to the tree and began to

work on it, and I started to pull on this vine,

and I got a couple of feet of it pulled down,

and this thing was, I'm talking about it was

attached. It was holding on to something really

tight in the top of that tree, and I pulled,

and I twisted, and I tugged on it forever, and

I fought with it, and I could not get that vine

to let loose from that tree. And so I said, it

was the end of the day. I said, I'm tired. I

don't feel like fooling with this. I'll pull

this down next time. I might have to tie it to

the truck or to the golf cart or something to

pull it. Well, I went out there the next day,

and I said, you know what, I think I can get

this thing. I've got to be able to get this thing.

And I figured out a way that I could get a good

grip on it in between the thorns and grab a hold

tight so maybe my hand wouldn't slide onto a

thorn. And I began to pull, and I began to tug,

and I gave everything I got. And finally it began

to let loose. And I continued to fight, and I

continued to pull, and I continued to tug. But

it was just so, it was grown into something.

I thought I was going to pull the top of the

tree out. I was pulling as hard as I could, and

I'm 30 foot away from the tree with this vine,

and the whole top of the tree, I mean, it looks

like something from a Looney Tunes cartoon. It's

all bent over, and this thing has just grabbed

a hold in there, and finally it begins to break

loose some more. And I pull, and I tug, and finally.

I get this thorny vine down out of the tree,

and it was kind of ugly. Just one simple little

vine at the bottom, but when it had gotten to

the top of the tree, it had grown into tons of

green vines that were wrapped all in that tree.

I measured it. It was so long. I said, how long

is this thing? I measured it. It was 63 foot

long that this vine had grown up into this tree.

And when I pulled that vine out, I thought to

myself, This is kind of like what sin is like

in our life. As this verse talks about our wickedness

and our sin that entraps us, that ensnares us.

It's like a rope or like cords, your translations

may use different words there, that are wrapped

around us. And so many times the sin in our life,

it springs up. And that vine that I had to give

all my effort to be able to pull out, at one

time that thing probably wasn't as big as a toothpick.

And it worked its way out of the ground and it

worked its way up that tree and it no doubt had

been working up that tree for years at this point.

And from the ground it didn't look like it was

going to be much. It just looked like a little

vine. But that little vine had sprouted into

something that had really took hold in that tree.

And that's what sin does in our life. There's

sin in our life that sometimes it begins to grow.

And we don't pay much attention to it because

it's small. We see it sprout up and we may not

even realize it. We may not even notice that

it's having an effect on us. But it's important

for us to begin to look at our lives and to look

at our hearts and to look at the Word of God

and see what God's Word calls sin and see if

there's anything. like that in our life that's

beginning to sprout up. Because if we don't deal

with our sin, what happens is it grows into the

very fabric of our heart and our being and who

we are, and it begins to take a hold of us more

than we ever realize. And we are entangled in

that. We are ensnared in that sin. Hebrews chapter

Hebrews 12:1

12 verse 1 says this, Therefore, since we also

have a large crowd of witnesses surrounding us,

let us lay aside every weight and the sin that

so easily ensnares. And there's sin in your life

and there's sin in my life and maybe the sin

that ensnares you and entraps you is different

from the sin that ensnares me and entraps me.

But there's some sin in our lives and we need

to recognize those things when they begin to

pop up. That sin that so easily ensnares us.

That thing that tempts you and you don't really

want to do it and you say time and time again

that you won't give in to the temptation and

you won't sin and then more times then you want

to admit you find yourself just ensnared with

that sin. And the book of Hebrews in that beautiful

verse is such a good verse for us that we need

to lay aside those weights, those burdens of

sin that weighs us down, that sin that ensnares

us because we may not realize it, but the sin

in our life, it has an effect on us. It has an

effect on us physically and mentally and spiritually.

Our sin is tangled up in us. And maybe the sin

in our life is the cause of some of our problems.

And we don't even realize it. Maybe the answer

to our problem is not more pills or not more

this or not more that. Maybe the answer to some

of our problems in our life is repentance. To

get that sin out, and we cannot get the sin out,

but we have to start the process by realizing

that there's sin there and seeking the one who

can remove the sin. So we want to lay aside the

weight and the sin that so easily ensnares, and

the end of that verse says, let us run with endurance

the race that lies before us, keeping our eyes

on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith.

And so in this journey that is life, it is tough.

And the temptations come. And sometimes we're

able to overcome them and sometimes we're not.

And that's when sin is born. But how do we overcome

our sin? We overcome our sin by looking to Jesus

Christ. He is the one who is going to free us

of that sin. He is the one who is going to clean

our wicked heart. Now in Proverbs chapter 5 it

Proverbs 5 · chapter mention

talks about the wicked man. And we might not

like to think of ourselves as wicked men and

women, but we are. Because our sin is ever before

us. And our sin is entangled within us and it's

grabbing a hold of us. And it's got some of us

really hard this morning. We are not as good

maybe as we think we are. We're not as good as

we want to be. We are wicked. Jeremiah chapter

Jeremiah 17:9

17 verse 9 says, The heart is deceitful above

all things and desperately wicked. Desperately

wicked. So we have to check our heart and what

we desire because oftentimes what we feel like

our heart telling us is really just what we want

to hear. It's really what we desire. And we have

to check ourselves because our heart is deceitful.

It's deceitful above all things. And so sometimes

we'll say stuff like, oh, I just really feel

in my heart that this is what I'm supposed to

do. I really feel in my heart that this is the

way things are supposed to be. Well, maybe that's

right or maybe it's not. You better check that

heart because if that heart is not being guided

by God, if it's being guided by your own thoughts

and your own desires, then your heart is going

to lead you astray. Your heart is deceitful above

all things and desperately wicked. and desperately

wicked. That's bad news for us. And that's what

sin does to us. Sin begins to sprout in our life,

and it begins to grow in our life, and sin, left

unchecked, will grow into our heart, and it will

be in there like that vine was in that tree.

And it is hard. Sin is hard. There are so many

things in our life, so many sins that we say,

man, I shouldn't do this thing that I do. I shouldn't

say this thing that I say. I shouldn't be acting

the way that I'm acting. I shouldn't be watching

the thing I'm watching, listening to the thing

I'm listening to. I shouldn't have an attitude

like this. I shouldn't be this way. And we know

these sins are there, and they're just hard to

deal with. And we start, and we're going to do

good, and we're going to avoid those temptations,

and we're going to avoid those sins, and we're

going to overcome them. And we start, and sometimes

we do pretty good, and then we give up because

it gets hard. It's kind of like when you make

your New Year's resolution. You're going to exercise

every day. You're going to eat right. And that

lasts for about a week because it's hard. Because

you've got to get up early and go to the gym,

or you've got to go late after you get off, and

you're tired, and you don't want to cook, and

you've cooked for a week, and you say, I don't

want to cook today. I'll just go get a double

Baconator. That's a lot easier. But I'll get

back on track tomorrow. But you don't. Because

the moment that we start to have to put a little

work into something, it's just too hard for us.

And sin is the same way. We really have to seek

the strength of God to fight against our sin.

It's like when I pulled that vine down, I gave

up because it was too hard. And the harder I

pulled, the harder it got. But over time, eventually,

it got a little easier. The more I pulled, the

easier it got. The more I pulled, the more it

began to loosen up. But I had to pull, and I

had to tug, and I had to fight, and I had to

give it everything that I had. And sometimes

that needs to be what our struggle with sin looks

like. There are some things in your life that

are hard for you today. Some things that you

have struggled with for months or maybe even

years. And you know they shouldn't be there and

you don't want them to be there and you've tried

to stop and you've fought and you've tugged and

you've given up. But you need to fight hard against

that sin today. You need to say, God, I'm not

going to live in this sin. I'm going to repent

of this sin. And God, the temptation is going

to come. It is going to come. You can rest assured.

You can have all the resolve in the world today

that you're going to overcome that sin. And that

temptation is going to come. But you're going

to have to fight. And you're going to have to

give everything that you've got. And when that

temptation comes, you have to seek the Lord.

Because He is the one who's going to free you

from that sin. He is the one who's going to forgive

you of that sin. Now, we can't forgive ourselves

of our sins, but we do play a part in it. We

have to acknowledge that sin. We have to repent

of that sin. We have to fight against those temptations

as hard as it may be. And it may be really hard

sometimes because there are things in our life

that are there, and they are just in there deep.

And they don't want to come out, and it is hard

for us to fight against some of those temptations

to sin. And the answer to that, the way that

we are freed from that is through Jesus Christ.

It's like when you find an old log. We talked

about this Wednesday night. This will be a repeat

for some of you. But it's like when you find

an old log, or you've got a piece of tin laying

around, and you pick it up, you see all these

critters under there, and they instantly flee.

when they see the light because they don't like

the light they don't they want to stay in the

darkness And that's how it is for our sin that

lives in the darkest parts of our heart, the

stuff that we don't even want to acknowledge

and want to admit, the stuff that when we read

Scripture that convicts us of it, that we just

cringe because we know it's there and we don't

like the light to expose our sin. But that's

the only way that we can be made free is through

the light of Jesus Christ coming into our life

and just cleansing us of the darkness that's

there. And that's our only hope in our battle

with sin is Jesus Christ. But we have to decide

today, are we ready to repent of our sin? Are

we ready to say, whatever it takes, God. I'll

give it my all, dear Lord. I will seek you, but

I'm tired of living this way. I'm tired of feeling

this way. I'm tired of giving in to this sin.

I'm tired of being a slave to this sin. Lord

Jesus, I just want freedom. And for some of us,

that's what we desire. We sin and we sin and

we regret it and we're ashamed of it and we don't

want to keep giving in to it. But we've become

a slave to that sin. But I want to tell you today,

you don't have to be a slave to your sin. That

Jesus Christ has given his life on a cross. He

was crucified and resurrected and he has victory

over sin. And it is the Lord who will give you

the strength. But you've got to be willing to

start that process. You've got to be willing

to say, Lord Jesus, I repent. Would you forgive

me? Would you give me the strength? Because Jesus,

I've tried time and time again, and I've fought,

and I've pulled, and I've tugged against this

sin, and I just can't overcome it. But the Scripture

says that Jesus Christ will help us to be overcomers.

And so maybe there is some sin in your life today.

And maybe this verse in Proverbs puts into perspective

really who we are. We are wicked people. And

our sins entrap us and they ensnare us and they

will destroy us. Don't mistake that. Your sin

will destroy you. For the wages of sin is death.

And apart from Jesus Christ, we are wicked and

doomed to die. But praise the Lord that Jesus

Christ sees us in our wickedness. He sees the

sin that so easily ensnares us. He sees the sin

that is wrapped so deeply around our heart, and

He says, I can forgive you of that. I can help

you to overcome that. I can give you freedom.

I can give you peace. We don't have to be slaves

to sin today. When we battle against sin, it

is not easy. I think everybody in here knows

that. It is not easy. Temptations come, and they

are not easy. But with the power and the strength

of Jesus, we can overcome our temptation and

be made free. Jesus says in John chapter 8 verse

John 8:34

34, I assure you, everyone who commits sin is

a slave of sin. A slave does not remain in the

household forever, but a son does remain forever.

Therefore, if the son sets you free, you really

will be free. Or some of your translations will

say, you are free indeed. I don't know what sin

you struggle with today, but I know you struggle

with sin because we all do. We are all human

today. But I can tell you the only solution,

the only answer, the only hope in our wickedness

and the only hope in our sin is Jesus Christ.

And He will give us freedom today. We do not

have to say yes to sin. We can say no. If not

by our own strength, by the strength of Jesus

Christ. There's freedom today in Jesus. There's

freedom today from our sin if we would just seek

Him and repent and let Him begin to do the work

in our heart. Let's pray. God, we come to You

today. We thank You for these good words. And

dear Lord, we don't like to think of ourselves

really as being wicked, but God, that's just

who we are in our sin, God. Apart from You, that's

who we are. wicked men and women, and we are

hopeless in our wickedness, dear Lord, apart

from you. But God, we thank you that we do not

have to live apart from you. That, dear Lord,

through Jesus Christ, you gave us a way to have

relationship with you. You gave us a way to be

made righteous in our wickedness, dear Lord.

And while the ways of sin in our life may be

wicked, dear Lord, the hope and the joy that

comes through forgiveness in Jesus Christ Beautiful

thing, dear Lord. So I pray that you would help

us, God. Maybe there's somebody in this room

today and they've never put their faith and trust

in Jesus Christ. Maybe today for the first time

they realize just how wicked their heart is.

Maybe they know that there are things there that

just shouldn't be there. Things that they don't

want to be there. God, things that they are tired

of being a slave to. I pray, God, that today...

That they would repent even now that they would

ask you to forgive them. That right now, dear

Lord, that they would ask Jesus to be their Lord

and Savior. That they would put their faith in

him, dear Lord. That they would know without

a shadow of a doubt that their sins have been

forgiven. That whatever that sin is, whatever

that temptation is, God, that you through Jesus

Christ can help them to overcome it. God, maybe

there are some here today and they are yours.

Maybe they know Jesus Christ, but... Maybe there's

some of us, God, and there's just been a little

bit of sin that sprouted up. And maybe we hadn't

dealt with it. And maybe it sprouted into something

we don't like. Maybe it's taken us down a road

to do things that we don't want to do. To act

in ways that we don't want to act. God, I pray

today that you would help us to cut that vine

loose through Jesus Christ. That today that you'd

begin to work on our heart, God. That today you'd

forgive us of our sins and you would begin the

process, God, of just pulling all that junk out,

God. That stuff that's just been entangled and

ensnared us, dear Lord. That stuff that's been

holding us back and keeping us down, dear Lord.

That you would begin to pull those things from

our heart today. That you give us strength, God,

as the temptation comes. As that sin tries to

rear its ugly head, God, that we would stand

boldly on the truth and the promises of Jesus

Christ to give us strength, to walk with us,

to forgive us, dear Lord. So I pray, God, that

if there are any today that have that sin that's

just wrapped up around them, God, that they would

find freedom today in Christ. They would know

today that they do not have to be a slave of

sin no more. God, I pray that as we sing in these

next few moments, that if there is anybody that

you've spoken to, that they would respond now.

And I ask these things in Jesus' name. Amen.