Essentials Of The Faith / Sunday Morning Sermon Series / 7 Wonders
Why Don't I Do What I Know I Should? 03/06/05
Title: ‘Why don’t I
do what I know I should
do?’
Main Texts: Mark 15:1-15; Romans
7:14-25
PP Main Slide
PP
Introduction: Life is filled with choices, choices that affect us
everyday, in everything we do. And some choices are more difficult to make
than others. One of the greatest abilities that separates us from the rest
of God’s creatures is our ability to weigh factors, recognize different
alternatives and then make a choice that we hope will be the right one.
PP Main Slide
Background: From the very beginning of time, people have had to make
choices.
PP Adam And Eve
Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden had to choose to obey or disobey God. I’m
sure that after their choice was made, they asked themselves, ‘Why don’t I
do what I know I should do?’
PP Main Slide
Transition: Have you ever asked the
same question. ‘Why don’t I do what I know I should?’. While there are
certainly a number of interconnected factors contributing to the choices we
make, I have come up with 4 that I believe are the most prominent. And these
4 are evident in the lives of 2 historic figures; Pontius Pilate and the
Apostle Paul.
PP Page # 779
PP Read: Mark 15:1-5
You are all familiar with the story. Jesus is wrongfully accused by the
religious leaders because he was a threat to their sinful way of life. So,
they took Jesus to Pilate, the Roman governor in Jerusalem to be killed.
‘Why don’t I do what I know I should do?’
PP 1.
Because I am a creature of habit.
PP Read: Mark 15:6-14
This was the time of the Feast of the Passover in Jerusalem and there was
usually a lot of rioting going on (remember the Israelites didn’t exactly
like being ruled by the Romans) So to calm the crowd, Pilate had a habit, a
tradition, of releasing one condemned prisoner.
PP Jesus and Pilate
In John’s Gospel, we find that Pilate didn’t think Jesus was guilty of
anything that deserved death. So Pilate had to make a choice. What would
guide his decision making process? Pilate offered to release Jesus, as was
his habit, it was what he always did at this time of year.
Isn’t that often true for you and I was well? We make choices, we do the
things we know we shouldn’t do…often for the sole reason that we have always
done it that way before…it has become a habit and habits are hard to break.
Hard, but not impossible, as we will see later.
‘Why don’t I do what I know I should do?’
PP 2. Because it serves a purpose and
provides a payoff in my life.
PP Read: Mark 15:15
What purpose did the choice to crucify Jesus have for Pilate? What was his
payoff?
• PP To satisfy others/ to get
their approval. Pilate wanted to be liked by the Jews, well, at least he
didn’t want to be hated and have them complain to Rome and cause him to lose
his cushy job. The pay off for the choice he made was to keep the peace and
save his job. After all, Pilate was a politician, he wanted to be reelected
so he did what he knew he shouldn’t have done because it served a purpose
and provided a payoff for him.
Think about it. At some level, the reason we often don’t do what we know we
should do, is because we believe it will benefit us somehow or we wouldn’t
be thinking about doing it. Let me give you an example straight from this
weeks headlines.
PP Ill: Martha Stewart Released from
Jail to serve 5 months on house arrest.
Martha Stewart…come on, think about it…Martha Stewart, miss prim and proper
perfect home person. Why would she make the choice to dump her stock in a
company she had inside
information that it was going belly up?
-Knowing full well it is illegal.
-Knowing full well if she got caught it would tarnish her name and
reputation.
-Knowing full well she might get caught and have to go to jail?
Why did she do what she knew she should not have done? Because she believed
it would serve a purpose, there would be a payoff…
PP Money
she made a bundle on the sale of the stock..as if she didn’t have enough
money already.
PP Salary
She makes $900,000.00 salary, not inc. book deals, personal appearances and
the like. I suppose the more money you have the more you want…and often you
are willing to do what you know you shouldn’t do to get more.
And for many of us we do what we know we shouldn’t do because we believe the
payoff is worth the risk. Whatever it is, we believe it will serve a purpose
so we keep doing what we know we shouldn’t.
PP Main slide
‘Why don’t I do what I know I should do?’
PP 3. Because it’s who I am.
ILL: C.S. Lewis once said ‘No man
knows how bad he is until he has tried to be good.’
PP Page #861
PP Read: Romans 7:14-24
This is our struggle isn’t it? We want to make right choices, we want to do
the right things, but we don’t and we get more and more frustrated.
How many of you have ever tried a diet? We tell ourselves we are going to
eat better, lay off the sweets..for me it’s cheese steak hoagies..
PP Cheese Steak hoagie
We start our diets on Monday and by Wed we are cheating…we have no power to
do what we know we should do...eat right. You know, I have to admit that
sometimes I think a balanced meal is
PP Balanced Meal
a cheese steak hoagie in each hand.
Don’t get me wrong. We have the motivation, clothes that don’t fit, but we
often lack the determination, the power to follow thru.
PP Main slide
PP ILL: Think about the man who is
addicted to pornography.
• He knows it’s wrong, if he is a Christian, he knows it is a sin…but it
is exciting.
• He knows it’s demeaning to women and if he is married it’s mental
adultery. But, it’s fun.
• He knows he needs to stop, to do the right thing, but at night when the
family goes to bed, he logs on and once again does what he knows he
shouldn’t be
doing…He just can’t stop.
PP ILL: Think about the woman who
knows she shouldn’t be maxing out her credit cards.
• She knows she should be living within her means but she goes to the
mall and sees all the things she wants.
• She justifies her purchases by thinking she deserves it, they will make
her happy…until the credit card bill comes in and she has to explain it to
her
husband…again, and again.
PP Main slide
We make bad choices, we do what we know we shouldn’t do and we get more and
more frustrated because we don’t understand why? We want to make right
choices but we can’t seem to do it on a regular basis. We get further and
further in debt, we become more and more enslaved to our addictions and we
ask why? Why? Please tell me why?
The answer is sin. To be more specific, the answer is our sin nature. That’s
what Paul discovered and wrote about in Roman 7.
Why don’t I do what I know I should do?’ because I have a sin nature that
influences me to sin, to make wrong choices, to do what I know I should not
do…I do what I know I shouldn’t do because it’s who I am.
Disagree? Don’t think you have a sin nature? Let me ask you…
PP Children
• Do you have to teach a child to say no?
• Do you have to teach a child to be selfish and unwilling to share?
• Do you have to teach a child to have a temper tantrum?
No. It’s part of the child’s nature, they are born that way…we were all born
that way, with a sin nature, the propensity to do what we know we should not
do. It’s who we are.
PP Main Slide
So it’s no wonder you’re frustrated when you struggle to make right choices,
do the right things…you see, the problem goes deep…real deep…there is a
battle going on for your soul.
PP Read: 1 Peter 2:11
Your sin nature, influenced by Satan, wants control of your life…now and for
all eternity. He is behind every situation when you give in and say or do
the things you know you shouldn’t. And the more you listen, the more you
give in, the less power you have to stop doing what you know you shouldn’t.
Sin dominates, the choice to sin becomes a habit and we begin to believe
there are benefits and payoffs. Like the man addicted to porn or the woman
who is a compulsive spender, you know it’s wrong, but you can’t stop… you do
what you know you shouldn’t do because it’s in your nature, it’s who you
are.
Pretty pathetic picture isn’t it? Paul would agree. When he reached rock
bottom in his life, Paul cries out…I am a wretched, pitiful person, who will
rescue me from this body of death. Body of death is another way of talking
about our sin nature.
Sidebar: Body of death is an
interesting use of words. There is a tribe in Africa that has an interesting
way of dealing with murderers. When someone is found guilty of murder,
he/she would be tied, face to face, with the one they killed and then buried
together. The idea is that they would have to endure all eternity, face to
face, with their guilt.
Perhaps like Paul, you too are asking, who will untie me from the guilt of
my sin, who will release me from the eternal consequences of my sinful
choices? Paul also knew the answer to those questions.
‘Why don’t I do what I know I should do?’
PP 4. Because I am not connected to God.
PP Read: Romans 3:23, 6:23
The wrong choices we make, the times we give in to our sinful nature, we
show our separation from God. Sin separates us from God, we loose our
connection with Him. Paul recognized his need to connect with God, to
receive the power over his sin nature that only faith in Jesus Christ can
bring.
PP Read: Roman 7:25
We do what we know we shouldn’t do, because we don’t know about the power
available to us because we have rejected Jesus Christ. You see, it’s our
faith in Jesus Christ that gives us the power to have victory over our sin
nature. How? Because Jesus defeated sin on the cross when he rose from the
dead. When we accept Jesus as our Savior, we share in the benefits of his
victory over sin. What benefits?
PP Read: Romans 8:1-3
• PP We are no longer condemned by God, no longer guilty of our sin.
• PP We have been set free from the slavery of our sin nature.
• PP We have been released from the body of death.
Figuratively speaking, Jesus has untied us from the body of death and tied
himself to it. He died with our sin. But he rose from the dead and broke
free from the body of death. Through faith in Jesus, we are now tied to him
for all eternity…where there’s life, power, and victory!
PP Main Slide
Conclusion
If you are a Christian here this morning and you have done things you know
you shouldn’t have done give them to Jesus. Ask for his forgiveness and seek
his help to have victory over your sin nature the next time you need to make
a choice.
If you are not a Christian here this morning,
• You are tied to that body of death.
• You are staring eternal death face to face and you are powerless to
find victory over your sin nature.
• You have no hope of heaven because you are not connected to God through
faith in Jesus Christ.
But there is hope, you can claim the victory and power of Jesus’
resurrection. And you have the opportunity to make that choice…right now.
It’s the most important choice you will ever make.
• Ask God to forgive your sins.
• Tell his you want Jesus’ death on the cross to pay for them.
• Ask him to permeate your life and to give you the power to have victory
over your sin nature.
Ask Jesus to untie you from the body of death and bring you to life, to
power and to victory.