Spelling Out Success - Romans 7:15-17

"I co-hosted a Saturday teen call-in radio show that provided me with endless opportunities that I cherished to reach across the nation in airwaves of radio and really hug America's hurting kids. Many of the calls that I got were encouraging. I remember a 17 year old in New York who got a thousand friends in her public high school to where pray for Jesus t-shirts."

Family Discussions:

1. Why is it so hard to do the right thing on our own power?
2. How does it defeat us?
3. How does Christ pull out of the mud of sin?
4. What is it about the spirit of Christ that gives us freedom?

Transcription:

00:13 Hey today I want to tell you about some of my favorite Saturday nights I've ever lived on Team talk radio with Focus on the Family. We're in Romans chapter seven verses 15 through 17. And it says this, "what I am doing, I do not understand for I'm not practicing that which I would like to do. But I'm doing the very thing I hate. But if I do the very thing I do not want to do, I agree with the law confessing that the law is good. So now, no longer am I the one who's doing it, but sin, which indwells me. I can't stop sinning." Paul is saying here. Uh, so, uh, so years ago, I cohosted a Saturday teen call-in radio show that provided me with endless opportunities that I cherished to reach across the nation in airwaves of radio and really hug America's hurting kids.

01:10 Uh, many of the calls that I got were encouraging. I remember a 17 year old in New York who got a thousand friends in her public high school to where pray for Jesus t-shirts. I remember a 16 year old in Las Vegas, uh, who witnessed openly to his unsaved friends every day. I remember an 18 year old in Florida who told his girlfriend that all traces of sex are for marriage only. I remember 17 year old from Dallas who sit strong moral standards that excluded drinking and tobacco and drugs and petting and stuff like that. But you know what, in those years on the radio, some of the calls were really, really painful. Um, tough calls night after night. I'll never forget a 15 year old girl from California pleading for help, uh, drinking and drugs and sex proliferated, um, her weary, weary emotions. Uh, she would say, men, I want to stop, but I just can't. I just can't stop.

02:06 I feel like an addict. I encouraged her to save herself for true love. In her days that lay ahead with a diamond ring to seal the commitment with her husband. But I just can't, I just can't stop. I'm, I'm addicted. I can't quit. She would say. Boy, there's so many of us understand her desperate plea. You know, guilt in a sense of failure are the two greatest demotivators and creators of defeat ever dreamed up by Satan. That's why he allows them to speak to our inner spirit. Man. Of course, you've blown it in your past. Join the club. We all have. Man, that's why Jesus came to this earth in the first place. He knows you can't do it on your own. That's why every day is a brand new day to say, you know what, I might've failed yesterday, but today is the first day of the rest of my life.

02:59 Christ can give me the grace to never sin like that again. I remember one of thousands of guys who've come up to that cross in these men's events that I do. He'd hated his dad for 35 years because his dad has abused him. But there at the cross. He said, I forgive you dad. I forgive you dad. And so the stories go across this country. And here's the question for you today. Why is it so hard to do the right thing on our own power? But, uh, but, but how does, how does it defeat us? It with the big question is this, how does Christ pull out of the mud of sin? What is it about the spirit of Christ that gives us freedom? The lifeline for today is this, uh, you know, pointing out your failures only spells further failure, but pointing out someone's successes, especially in your family, spells success for them in their future.