Have you ever seen someone build a really elaborate domino train? I love the idea of setting the dominoes up and watching them all fall into place.
Have you ever tried to build something like that? I tried a million times growing up to create a pattern or train with dominoes. I would sit down and start really focused and motivated. I would put down one domino at a time very carefully in a straight line and I would start to make some progress. But inevitably I would get impatient. I would start thinking about how long it would take me to get to the end, I’d think about how much I wanted to see the end result already. So I would speed up, or try to cut corners, and eventually, I’d knock them down every single time. When I was patient and focused on one domino at a time, I would make progress. But as soon as I got too impatient, I would mess it up, and every time I messed up I would get discouraged and eventually give up.
I want you to think about your life like these dominoes. Every day is one domino. Every day you make choices and those choices impact the rest of your life. Those choices impact the direction you go and the person you become.
Now I want you to think back to a very specific domino, a specific day, the day your habit started. You know what habit I am talking about. The one you don’t want anyone to know about. The one you didn’t even mean to start, but you came across it one day, and slowly over time, it has become a part of your everyday life. That habit could be a bunch of different things– some of you it’s porn or sleeping around, some it's lying, gossiping, or cheating your way through school, some of you it’s drugs or alcohol. Maybe you are struggling with a bad attitude or you can’t stop cussing, or you are constantly being a jerk to your parents or siblings.
Every day you deal with this habit, and you hope no one will find out. You’re hoping you can just keep this to yourself. So you come to church and put on a smile and act like everything’s ok. But you know, and you know that God knows. And you know if you don’t get control over it, this habit has the potential to take over your life.
I know because I have been there. I have been the person sitting at church acting like I have it all together when really I am struggling.
I remember feeling so drained because I was living a double life. King David lived a double life, everyone thought he had it all together but inside his world was falling apart.
In Psalm 32:3 King David writes,
“When I refused to confess my sin, my body wasted away, and I groaned all day long.”
In the New Testament, the book of James says that sin grows inside of us, it’s like cancer that grows and grows, leaving us feeling dead inside. It starts small but slowly, day by day, it builds and builds, it controls your life and it destroys your life.
And you know what I am saying is the truth. I don’t think I have to convince you that your porn addiction is destroying your mind and harming your future relationships, I don’t have to prove to you that lying every day is making you incredibly untrustworthy and before you know it, no one is gonna be close to you. You already know the damage this thing is doing to you. Beyond all of that, I know you have felt distant from God because you keep returning to that habit. The one thing you told God would change, still hasn’t. I am sure that every time you mess up you feel more ashamed. You become even more convinced that you are too far gone and God couldn’t possibly use you.
I don’t think I have to convince you of the danger of the situation you are in. I think I need to convince you that there is a way out. You don’t have to be stuck like this anymore.
The Bible says that when we are tempted, God provides a way out.
1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.”
God promises to provide a way out. If you want to be free, you have to take the way out that He gives you. To start, you have to be honest.
You cannot fight a bad habit if you don’t admit that you have a bad habit. A lot of us like to convince ourselves that the habit we have isn’t as bad as it is. You have to stop that. If you want to make a change, you have to start by admitting that something is wrong. Be honest with yourself and then-
You need to repent. You need to pray and say “God I know I have allowed sin to come in and take over my life. I don’t want to live like this anymore. Please forgive me for allowing this habit to distract me from following you. Help me to change.” You pray and you mean it. You ask God for His help in turning away from this sin. Now that you have been honest with yourself and with God, the way you fight this is-
Some of you have tried a bunch of times to stop but you can’t seem to get very far. Just like me with these dominoes, you make some progress but then you get so overwhelmed by how big and difficult the goal is that you give up or you screw up because it is just too hard to achieve.
But again I want you to think back to the day this all started. Think back to the first day someone offered you a drink, or when you started gossiping. You didn’t wake up that first day thinking you wanted to become addicted to pornography. No one wakes up thinking they want to depend on alcohol or drugs to get through the day. No one wants to be a habitual liar or make the people around them miserable with their attitude. No, these habits grow over time, day after day, choice after choice, domino after domino they build until it becomes the habit that you feel stuck in now. The way you finally get out of this place is the same way you got here originally. You take it one day at a time. One domino at a time. Matthew 6:34 teaches us the principle of taking life one day at a time
It says, “So don’t worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will bring its own worries. Today’s trouble is enough for today.”
So many of you have tried to quit these habits and addictions so many times, but your goals feel so big and lofty that you fail every time. The question you have to ask yourself isn’t “Can I stop watching porn for the rest of my life?” That's way too overwhelming. You have to ask yourself “Can I stop today?” and every single day you wake up and you start a brand new day with the same goal, I am just going to focus on today. Just one domino at a time. And if you can do that, by God’s strength, one day you will look back and realize you have been free for a very long time.
Finally,
This doesn’t work if you try to do it on your own. If you are serious about wanting freedom, you need to tell someone. That person needs to be another Christian that you trust. Someone who can help you and hold you accountable. When you get overwhelmed you need someone to remind you to take it one day at a time.
James 5:16 says, “Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective.”
If you want to be free, you need people praying for you. You need someone who will have your back and help you when this gets hard.
So my challenge to you is to start by being honest with yourself and then with God. Then tell someone you can count on that loves Jesus and loves you, and commit to not picking up that habit, just today. Then do the same thing tomorrow. Take it one day at a time and watch how God transforms you and sets you free. Don’t think about next week, next month or next year. Don’t focus on yesterday either. You can’t change the mistakes you made in the past and you can’t do anything about the future yet. All you can do is focus on today. Take it one day at a time, and when you mess up, don’t get discouraged, don’t give up, just pick up the next domino, the next day and keep going.
If you are not a Christian, and you are tired of living life like this, trying to fight sin and shame on your own, I want you to know that you don’t have to do it anymore. You can commit your life to Jesus today, and when you do, the Holy Spirit will come to live inside of you and can help you have a way out from temptation.
Whatever habit you are struggling with, there is a way out. You can change. The question is, will you start today?
©2024 Sagebrush Church
