The Internal War
About this sermon
In “The Internal War,” Pastor Dean Odle presents a Scripture-centered message about grace and mercy, the authority of Scripture, the soulish life. Drawing especially from Psalm 39, Romans 7, Luke 15, Philippians 1, the teaching emphasizes that God’s grace forgives and also trains believers to leave sin and live in obedience. Odle connects that foundation with the conviction that Scripture is presented as the standard for doctrine, discernment, and daily obedience.
Chronological teaching outline
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Odle focuses on pride and humility while working through Psalm 39. The message argues that spiritual pride blinds people to correction, while humility receives truth and depends on God. It connects this with the conviction that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on family discipleship while working through Romans 7, Luke 15. The message argues that faithfulness in the home requires instruction, loving correction, protection, and a consistent Christian example. It connects this with the conviction that God’s grace forgives and also trains believers to leave sin and live in obedience. The practical emphasis is to respond with honest repentance and concrete obedience.
Odle focuses on grace and mercy while working through Romans 7. The message argues that God’s grace forgives and also trains believers to leave sin and live in obedience. It connects this with the conviction that faithfulness in the home requires instruction, loving correction, protection, and a consistent Christian example. The practical emphasis is to practice patient, truthful love in relationships and conflict.
Odle focuses on God’s commandments while working through Psalm 39, Romans 7. The message argues that God’s commands reveal His standard and direct the obedient life. It connects this with the conviction that unresolved offense can become bitterness, while forgiveness releases judgment to God and protects the heart. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on David’s example while working through Romans 7, Philippians 1, Psalm 51. The message argues that David’s choices are used to examine leadership, testing, repentance, and renewed dependence on God. It connects this with the conviction that the believer must answer fear with trust in God, sober judgment, and faithful action. The practical emphasis is to trust God’s promises and refuse decisions governed by fear.
Odle focuses on grace and mercy. The message argues that God’s grace forgives and also trains believers to leave sin and live in obedience. It connects this with the conviction that God calls believers to reject compromise and pursue practical holiness. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on grace and mercy while working through Revelation 3. The message argues that God’s grace forgives and also trains believers to leave sin and live in obedience. It connects this with the conviction that God’s commands reveal His standard and direct the obedient life. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on the soulish life while working through Romans 7, Romans 8. The message argues that natural emotion and self-directed reasoning must yield to the Holy Spirit and the mind of Christ. It connects this with the conviction that Scripture is presented as the standard for doctrine, discernment, and daily obedience. The practical emphasis is to test the teaching by Scripture and apply it through faithful obedience.
Odle focuses on prayer while working through Galatians 5, Revelation 21. The message argues that prayer expresses dependence on God and prepares believers to hear and obey Him. It connects this with the conviction that God’s judgment is treated as righteous, certain, and a reason to repent while mercy is offered. The practical emphasis is to seek God in prayer and act on what Scripture requires.
Odle focuses on grace and mercy while working through Galatians 5, Revelation 21, Hebrews 10. The message argues that God’s grace forgives and also trains believers to leave sin and live in obedience. It connects this with the conviction that the promise of eternal life directs believers toward hope, holiness, and perseverance in Christ. The practical emphasis is to examine the heart, receive correction, and finish faithfully.
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- 0:00:02
lord you're holy and we worship you this morning god we just thank you lord we praise you we exalt you great jehovah god of abraham isaac and jacob we just praise you this morning we exalt the name of jesus the name that is above every name we praise you almighty god and we thank you lord for everything you're doing in our lives and and the things that you're going to do in jesus name we pray amen hallelujah well good morning everyone i want to welcome those that are listening by internet radio this morning the fire and grace church praise god hopefully we're going to learn something today amen um i do feel like that there's a few things i want to share with you hopefully uh i can get them across i want everybody i guess first turn to it's gonna sound odd here i guess but turn to ecclesiastes [Music] i'm sorry not ecclesiastes first we are going to turn there so you put your finger on it and come back but let's go to psalm 39. you know i felt like and i just felt the lord impressing on me today you know to bring a little balance to some things of course you know for those of you who listened last week and those of you who are here last week you know that preached a pretty strong message from the book of second peter and you know the anointing was there god was there upon that and of course everything is true no backtracking here but we do need to to grab something and and uh i think to help us to not get prideful about certain things and to understand the war that we face especially in a church that preaches repentance that preaches righteousness and holiness and that god demands those things and expects those things it doesn't mean that we don't believe in god's grace and mercy and forgiveness doesn't mean that we don't believe uh you know that you know god is is uh merciful and loves us and we are not even for one second trying to say that even christians who are striving for holiness and and to obey god and to live a godly life um you know i mean we're not even
- 0:03:03
we're not trying to say you know of course that that we're perfect or that christians who are striving for those things never sin um and i think that's we need to bring some balance because bottom line as long as you're in this body in this physical body you're going to struggle and have an internal struggle with sin it's always going to be with you the apostle paul talked about that and if he said that sin is always with me it's in my flesh and in my flesh now dwells no good thing then guess what that's that's the way it is though i think within christianity the problem is we're afraid to define what gets us in trouble and what doesn't get us in trouble we're afraid to clarify things and you know this is one of the things when i was looking at this this morning this is one of the things that just blows my mind you know the issue of sin is hardly talked about within churches today repentance is almost a dirty word holiness no we can't talk about that unless jesus makes me holy no matter how i live that's the only way we can talk about that um but um well let's just let's just read this we're just going to get into it um first scripture i want to read here this is psalm 39 and i actually posted this on facebook this morning but this is something for all of us no matter how holy we think we are no matter how righteous we think we are no matter how good uh we may be walking our christianity right now we need to remember something because we don't want to get prideful when we're doing well you know because pride will begin to take you down a road you know before a fall you know pride goes before a fall and haughtiness before destruction so um you know there's that dangerous thing where you know hey does god want us to do good yes then there's that thing of well when we get to doing good then we get prideful about it we get we get real real happy with ourselves that we're doing good right or we've got the other extreme when we start struggling with a sin or with doubt or fear or lust or anger [Music] or you know unbelief whatever we start struggling and we go to the other extreme and think oh my gosh you know i'm just the worst wretched person that's ever lived and you know a lot of people take that that i'm the worst wretched person that ever lived i can't do this and they end up what they end up just saying well i just give up and they go and just live in sin completely and both of those are just as evil and just as wrong and just as destructive because god doesn't want us getting into pride when we're doing good
- 0:06:04
and god doesn't want us when we struggle or when we fall to just give up and go indulge and live in a lifestyle of sin right now you would think that most christians would know that but they don't and we have a lot of excuses for a lot of things that go on in our lives but we need to know some things this morning but this is just to me there's no pride in this verse right here and this right here this is um psalm 39. are you with me this is what he said here in verse 4 lord make me to know my end the measure of my days what it is that i may know how frail i am behold thou has made my days as a hand breath and my age is nothing before thee now look at this last part here verily every man at his best state is altogether vanity sila or pause and think about this let's read that verse again verse five behold thou has made my days as a hand breath and my age is as nothing before thee verily or truly every man and his best state is all together vanity listen to me even when you're doing good evil is present with you that's romans 7. we may look at that in just a second so what is god saying there very clearly look even at our best state even when we're doing the very best that we can do walking with the lord walking in obedience walking in holiness walking in righteousness walking in purity trying to turn from our sins trying to not be worldly and lustful and controlled by those things the bottom line is that sin is constantly with us evil constantly lives and dwells within our flesh satan has a constant ally to work with and that's called our physical body i mean i just think about that that's why that redemption is not complete until the body is going to be redeemed at the resurrection because the spirit of a christian has been born again it's been born again the spirit of a christian has been made alive in jesus christ the soul has to be renewed right by staying in the word of god in prayer and things the soul has to be renewed but there's no hope for the body until the resurrection it will never change until this mortal puts on immortality amen so within this flesh because of adam and eve's sin because of what we inherited because of this flesh guess what we got issues
- 0:09:04
right paul talked about this now i want to go to romans 7 let's go there now i'm going to make sure that you understand something what i'm preaching this morning is not an excuse to go live a lifestyle of sin okay but the christian the christian will still struggle with sin and this is where the world they have a problem with us okay now for some christians they need to have a problem because we're going to show the differences more hopefully but they have a problem with us because the gospel to preach the gospel truly is to preach you must repent that means you must turn from your sins in evil ways in wickedness and stop doing them and ask jesus for forgiveness and make jesus lord of your life and walk a different way walk a new path a path with god obeying god walking with god knowing god intimately you know we talked about that last night you know putting away evil shunning evil fleeing from it running from it right and that's that's what a christian supposed to do and listen the world knows that's what a christian supposed to do the unsaved the ungodly they know that but when they see a christian fall or sin up they immediately go see look you can't do it what do you how you think i can do it but again they don't understand that there's a difference between a christian who may fall in a christian who gives up and lives in a sin now i know i've talked a lot about this but what i'm finding is that even though i've talked about it and preached about it the question still comes up in bible study doesn't it i mean even the people i've taught this to for about a year the question is still coming up because there's so many christians out there making excuses for lifestyles of sin and they and they they make the excuse well nobody can live sinless well i agree but that's not an excuse to indulge it amen see there's a difference and i've said this many times gonna say it again there's a difference between a christian who has no intention on committing a sin and just falling into it and then getting up and saying oh my you know i made a mistake i blew it here i shouldn't have done you know i i blew it god forgive me cleanse me i'm getting away from this verse is one who says you know what i'm covered by god's grace so i'm gonna go live the way i want to live and he understands that i can't get out of this fornication or adultery or pornography or anger or violence or whatever drugs alcohol and so because of god's grace the way they think it is they think well god understands big man upstairs knows right i've heard that one before god knows my heart
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