How Can We Be Encouraged When Sin Feels So Heavy?

How can we be encouraged when sin feels so heavy? That's just one of the questions we'll be talking about today.

You can also post your question on one of the questions we have for you today. If you're having a difficult time finding a church, a local church that aligns with what you believe the Scripture teaches, and that's also what I believe that the Scriptures teach as well, we do get that question from time to time about female ordination. And while that's not an issue that I think keeps us from affirming, that those who differ from us on this question can still be believers in Jesus Christ and love the Lord. I think it is an important issue, and I think that the Apostle Paul prohibits women from serving in that office, the office of elder, pastor, teacher, in places like 1 Timothy 3 and in Titus 1.

So you have the pastoral epistles that seem to say that someone who's called to the office or the ministry of the word, they ought to be called a qualified man within the church. Is there room for a leeway there? Can it be, well, there's just no men who are rising to the occasion, that sort of a thing? I don't think so.

That wouldn't be my view as well. You can't find a good guy, so let's just go against what we believe the Scriptures are teaching with regard to this issue. I think it is a problem. There is a lack of solid male leadership in many, many churches.

So we have to address that issue in particular. My hope would be that you could find a church, and maybe that means you're going to have to do some driving, or maybe it means a relocation. I know that might sound crazy, but people move for all sorts of reasons.

I want to have a bigger place to live or work or something else. I think worshiping at a solid church where the word of God is being faithfully taught, if there are no churches in your area, it's one thing when there are a lot of good churches and just saying, well, I don't like the worship at my church, so I'm going to go somewhere else. But if there are really no churches in your area, then really asking that question, is it time for us to consider going somewhere else? I know that's not simple.

There's a lot of complexity with that. But I would say, wherever we worship, we want to make sure that we're going somewhere where the word of God is respected and valued and where the church wants to worship in line with how God has called us to worship Him. The church is ordered in the way that the New Testament talks about it.

I think that that's really important. So may God give you wisdom and open the doors. Maybe that means, I'm not sure where specifically you are, but maybe the Lord raises up a church planter or a group of families there that want to start a new mission work.

I'm not sure, but be praying about that and may the Lord give you wisdom and guidance as you seek to be faithful to Him and to His word. Thanks for that, Adriel. This is Quora Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible, Christian life, doctrine, or theology. Maybe you have some doubts about the Christian faith.

If you consider yourself to be an agnostic or an atheist and would like to ask Adriel why he believes what he believes, feel free to give us a call. Here's the phone number. It's 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Let's go to Tessia, who's calling in from Canada. Tessia, thanks for your call.

What's your question for Adriel? Hi, how are you? I'm doing well, Tessia. How are you doing?

Okay, I'm doing good. Actually, the question that I have... Well, actually, I have a dear friend that is struggling with some supernatural, unseen spiritual warfare. And she's tried to reach out to pastors that she thought were anointed, but I don't think they deal with it. She's been suffering for three months. She gave her heart to the Lord, and at the end of her road, she said she can't take it anymore. They put pain on her body.

They're playing heavenly music over. It's the same process every day, trying to set her crazy and torment her. And I don't know, maybe somebody has went through it on the radio. If they're listening, they might have went through this, or they know somebody that went through it. Or if they could connect me to somebody that's anointed that could deal with this, because this can't be dealt with. It's not going away in prayer, because she cried out to the Lord over and over and over.

Sometimes the pain is light, and then other times it's so hard she can't walk. So that's my... I don't know if it's a question or... Mm-hmm. Well, Tessia, thank you. First and foremost, why don't we just take a moment to pray for your friend, who seems like she's going through something really difficult right now, and just ask for the Lord's mercy to be poured out upon her. Father, we pray for Tessia's friend, who's experiencing this great trial, Lord. We ask Lord Jesus for your deliverance.

We pray for whatever the root cause of this issue is, Lord God, for your healing, for your presence. We know what your word says, Lord Jesus, about how you have bound Satan, the strong man. And so, Lord, having bound Satan, your gospel spreads throughout the whole world. And might it spread more and more in this dear sister. And might she know your victory, Jesus, over the forces of darkness.

And might she walk in that freedom and joy and peace that your children can have, Lord God, deliver her from this affliction, we pray, in Jesus' name. Amen. Amen.

Tessia, I've had conversations with individuals who have experienced something similar. And I don't want to minimize the reality of the spiritual war that we're in, this very well could be spiritual warfare. And so prayer is important.

Prayer is at the heart of what we need to be doing. Sometimes there are, and I also don't want to discount this piece as well, sometimes there are serious mental health issues. There can be mental health issues as well. And I've seen that happen where an individual is going through a particular affliction, a mental health issue, and they're attributing it to demonic spiritual attack. But they're praying, and they're in good fellowship, and they belong to Jesus.

But they're not addressing the other component. And so there's a lot of confusion. And I just bring that up because I don't know. I don't know this friend of yours.

And I've not had the chance to sit down with her specifically. But what I can say is, if you are a child of the true and the living God, Satan can afflict us. He can tempt us.

He can seek to deceive us. But we are sealed with the Holy Spirit. Your friend, if she's trusted in Jesus Christ, she's sealed with the Holy Spirit. And I love what the Apostle John says in 1 John 5. He's talking about those who have been born of God. And he says in verse 18, We know that everyone who has been born of God does not keep on sinning, but he who was born of God protects him, and the evil one does not touch him.

We know that we are from God, and the whole world lies in the power of the evil one. The protection of Jesus Christ keeps the children of God from the power of Satan, the evil one. Again, it doesn't mean that we can't be afflicted, that we can't be tempted.

And maybe that's what your friend is experiencing, this affliction, this temptation, this struggle. But not giving way to despair and realizing that Christ ultimately, and finally through his death and resurrection, has conquered Satan once and for all. So we have that great comfort and we're called as the children of God to be strong in the Lord and in the power of his might. Paul says in Ephesians chapter 6 verse 10, putting on the whole armor of God. And so Paul outlines the pieces of that armor there in Ephesians chapter 6. Each of those things, the helmet of salvation, the breastplate of righteousness, those are gifts that Jesus gives to his people. Salvation is of the Lord, it comes from him. Righteousness, that gift of righteousness, the breastplate of righteousness that we're clothed in through faith in Jesus Christ when we're justified.

And so a couple of encouragements for you and just pieces of advice. One, making sure that your friend is in good Christian fellowship and community. You mentioned that she's reaching out, trying to find an anointed pastor who's going to deal with this problem for her. Jesus Christ is the anointed one, the Messiah.

It's not the power of an individual, it's Jesus who is bound and defeated Satan once for all. And so rather than looking for an individual, a pastor per se, to solve this, setting her eyes on Jesus continually. And you thought she's been praying? Just continuing to do that, to set her eyes on Christ in faith and to cling to his victory, the victory that he's won over the forces of darkness. Now, I said don't set your eyes on a pastor, but that doesn't mean she ought not to have a pastor. She needs to have a pastor in a community of faith, of believers who are clinging to the scriptures and able to come alongside of her and give her sound advice and counsel and encouragement from the word of God. And so if she's not in a church where that's happening, I think that has to be a really important piece of the puzzle.

Peter says that the evil one goes about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour. And when we're isolated as Christians, when we're trying to do the Christian walk on our own, apart from the communion of saints, from the fellowship of believers, we make ourselves easy targets. And so being in a solid church, clinging to the truth of God's word, Christ's victory over the forces of darkness, and praying through the armor of God that Paul talks about in Ephesians 6, 10 and following, those are my encouragements for you and for your friend. God bless.

Tessia, thanks for calling in. We'll be praying for that whole situation. This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. We'd love to hear from you if you have a question about the Bible, the Christian life, doctrine, or theology. Maybe you've got some type of persecution you're dealing with at work or at school. Hey, give us a call, 833-THECORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. You know, abortion has been on a lot of people's minds these days with the anniversary of the Supreme Court ruling on abortion. And with all the discussion that's going on, we wanted to make a special free devotional available to you that addresses that issue. Yeah, I'm grateful for this resource because as we've said on the broadcast before, this is a topic where we as followers of Jesus Christ are gonna need to have a strong stand.

It's one of the ways that we can continue to shine as lights in the world, standing up for the rights of the marginalized and in this case, standing up for the rights of the unborn, standing up for life. And so get ahold of this resource. It's called Fearfully Made. And again, it is a short booklet that you can get for free over at our website, corechristianity.com. You can read through it in an afternoon, and I know it'll be edifying for you and encouraging as you have conversations with others about this topic. We have a lot of great resources on our website. If you haven't checked that out, check out some of our core guides and our core questions, our wonderful Bible studies.

They're all available to you by going to corechristianity.com. Well, we do receive voicemails here at the Core, and you can call us 24 hours a day with your question. Just leave it on our voicemail system at 833-THE-CORE. And you can leave a voicemail also through our website.

We have a special technology there that allows you to do that. We have a voicemail that came in from one of our listeners in Ireland. This is Michael. Hi, Adrian and Bill. Just want to say thanks again to you guys for your great encouragement and the great ministry work that you continue to do. For yourself, Adrian, especially, the tough questions that get asked and so solidly and biblical, how you answer them and stay faithful to the Lord and to the Lord. So it's great encouragement to me, I'm sure to a lot of people, so keep doing that. I appreciate that.

I suppose it's just really more of a question as to today is Pride Day, and they have their kind of pride parade in Dublin. I'm just so discouraged by what I see. I think of Lot when the Lord talks about righteous Lot was being tormented by what he's seeing and would appreciate some wisdom maybe in this and how we can go forward.

Maybe you'd have some insight or wisdom in how we can handle this situation because I find the whole month of June in Ireland, it's so glorified, this pride thing, and it's quite discouraging. Yeah, just any encouragement or maybe how I could deal with this going forward, I'd appreciate it. Again, thanks guys for your faithful ministry. God bless.

Yeah. Man, thank you for all of that encouragement, and brother, I'm with you in terms of mourning. You think about the stuff that we see going on around us in society, and it just breaks your heart, and it can weigh heavily on you as a Christian.

In fact, it should. I mean, that should be the reaction that we have as followers of Jesus Christ. It's easy for us to get numb, I think, to these things, and just to think, well, you know, that's just how the world is now, but the truth is we don't want to be numb to the sin in our own lives, and we don't want to be numb to the sin around us, and so you mentioned, I love that you brought this up in 2 Peter as Peter is talking about the judgment that comes on false prophets and false teachers within the church. He brings up Lot as an example of righteousness. He says in 2 Peter 2, verse 7, if he rescued, if God rescued, righteous Lot greatly distressed by the sensual conduct of the wicked, for as that righteous man lived among them day after day, he was tormenting his righteous soul over their lawless deeds that he saw and heard, and of course, one thing to be comforted by is that the Lord spared Lot.

He protected Lot. He basically dragged out of the city by the angels, but it was God's mercy, and again, here he's commended as righteous for being tormented by the evil around him, and so there's something righteous and good about feeling that heavy heart. I think also of Paul when he is in Athens. He's lamenting. His heart is grieved, weighed down by all of the idolatry that he sees. Brothers and sisters, God help all of us to experience that, to have that sense, that feeling, not to be numb to the sin around us, not to be despairing, and here's what you have to cling to, Michael, is that the gospel of Jesus Christ is able to set free people that are in the bondage of sin, and Jesus promised to build his church. He said, I'm gonna build my church, and the gates of hell are not gonna prevail against her, and so even though it seems like at times we look around us, and man, there's just crazy stuff going on.

It seems like the gates of hell are advancing, prevailing. We have, you have the promise of Jesus that he is going to continue to build his church, and we have the testimony of so many people who are wrapped up in the sins that we see all around us, but who are set free by the love and mercy of Jesus Christ, and so we cling to that gospel, and we continue to proclaim it even when we feel discouraged because the people around us don't seem to be embracing it. We continue to proclaim it, and with compassion, to go to those around us in the world and to say, this is the good news for you, but let me just say one more thing to you, brother. You are blessed as you mourn the evil around you. I think of the Beatitudes, what Jesus says at the very beginning of his Sermon on the Mount in Matthew chapter 5. He says in verse 4, Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. Now, mourn there, he's not just talking about those, you know, thinking of mourning the death of someone or something like that. Here specifically, I think what Jesus is getting at is mourning sin. The effect of sin, not that we've lost our sins, you know, we're not grieved that I don't get to do that anymore, but mourning the fact that sin is so destructive in our own lives and in the world around us is probably echoing here in Matthew chapter 5 the words of the prophet Isaiah in Isaiah chapter 61 verses 1 and following, something that Jesus himself quotes, you know, the comfort to those who mourn, and the mourning there in Isaiah had to do with mourning over the exile, over the effect of sin.

And so it's the same thing here. Mourning the effect and impact of the sin of the world around us, being grieved by it, Jesus says, what does he say? Blessed. Blessed are those who mourn, for they shall be comforted. We have that hope, right? The world is struggling right now, I mean, in bondage to sin still, but we're looking forward to a new creation, and we will receive that ultimate comfort when God finally judges all of the sin around us and wipes every tear from our eyes. And so don't, you know, yes, we're blessed if we mourn.

We ought to. We ought to lament the central conduct of the wicked around us, but don't lose hope, and don't lose confidence in the power of the gospel, in the power of the word of God, to impact the world around you and the people that God brings into your life, your neighbors who you see caught up in this. Man, extend the love of Jesus Christ to them and stand firm on the truth of the gospel, knowing that it is the power of God and the power of God unto salvation for everyone who believes. God bless. That is so well said. Thank you for that, Adriel, and Michael, thank you for your voicemail from Ireland. We appreciate you so much listening there in your beautiful country.

This is Core Christianity with Pastor Adriel Sanchez. Just a programming note, we're going to be recording a second episode of the Core here in just a few minutes, so if you didn't get a chance to call during our live program, feel free to give us a call for the next 35 minutes or so. We're still going to be taking your calls and your questions. You can call us at 833-THE-CORE.

That's 1-833-843-2673. Love to hear from you. Let's go to Dornal, who's calling in from Tennessee. Dornal, what's your question for Adriel? Hello, hello. Thank you so much, Pastor Adriel, for taking my call.

Hope you have a good, good day today. I just wanted to ask, I have been passionate about music my whole life, and I really feel drawn to be a light in the secular music industry, but is it possible as a Christian to still glorify God and operate and use your talents in the secular music industry as a light? Is it possible to do that? Dornal, God bless you. Thank you for that question, and I believe that the answer is yes.

It is possible. I think it's difficult because I think there are going to be temptations to compromise along the way, and of course we know that following Jesus and walking with the Lord, especially in the entertainment industry in particular, as things go in a particular direction, there are challenges, I think, that musicians, that actors and actresses, there are challenges that they face, particular challenges. What I would say to you is, man, wherever you are and whatever you do, it sounds like God has gifted you in music, and I think that that's a wonderful thing, and you can use that gift to glorify the Lord. That doesn't mean that every song you write or instrument you play, it has to be a worship song or something like that. I think just doing your work excellently and using the gifts that God has given you and being a Christian as you do that.

I was talking to a friend of mine the other day who works in finance, and he just is excellent at what he does. There are moments in his job where people will say, co-workers will say, hey, let's go do this, or let's go do that, usually something that's not very good for a married man, and he'll say, no, I'm a believer, I'm a Christian, so I'm not gonna do that. There are two ways that that can go. The people who are around you can say, okay, we don't like this guy, he's a goody-two-shoes, that sort of a thing, or they can respect you for having a backbone. It's gone both ways.

I've seen it go both ways for individuals. My prayer would be for you, Darnell, that God would give you perseverance and strength and the ability to use your gifts, the gifts that God has given to you, to bless others, to do a good job at whatever it is that you do, including music, and that you would do it with integrity, and that as people see that, you would shine as a light for Jesus, especially in that place where it does seem like there's a void where we need more Christian voices and people who are willing to go and love Jesus there and be a light there. And so may the Lord bless you and keep you and be with you and be aware, brother, of the particular challenges that you may face there, the particular temptations, and make sure that you have a good, solid community of believers around you who are encouraging you and holding you accountable and helping you to stay faithful to Jesus, even as you seek to fulfill this calling in your life, this desire to do music. And so, pretty awesome. Bill, do you have any music skills?

I could play the piano a little bit. Hey, I appreciate Darnell. I love what he said.

Amen. God bless you all and thanks for listening. Thanks for listening to CORE Christianity. To request your copy of today's special offer, visit us at corechristianity.com and click on offers in the menu bar or call us at 1-833-843-2673.

That's 833, the CORE. When you contact us, please let us know how you've been encouraged by this program. And be sure to join us next time as we explore the truth of God's Word together. .