Note: This series is a cousin to the Crowded series.

4 week series helping students fight sin and pursue Jesus in a gospel-centered way. Much like dead weeds are an indication of life in a home, death of sin is an indication of life in Christ. So the pursuit of life in Christ leads to the death of: sin sounding delicious, being fooled by bad influences, and spiritual independence.

Video Messages Included

Week 1 (Romans 6:5-6, 10-11 NLT)

Intro: We all have weeds that grow in the cracks of our character, and while we might want to kill those sin weeds, they often stick around far longer than we’d like.

Truth: Paul points out that Christ’s work has made sin lose its power in our lives, and that our best course of action now is consider sin dead and defeated. In other worse, a big reason why sin is such a powerful force in your life is because you consider it a powerful force. When you pursue the fullness of life in Christ, the weeds will die on their own.

The Point: Death of sin is an indication of life in Christ

Week 2 (Philippians 3:4b-8 NLT)

Intro: Sometimes sin weeds are hard to kill because sin feels so satisfying in the moment. And if life in Christ is just a lifetime of begrudgingly denying ourselves the things we really want because it’s “the right thing to do”, that’s not much of a life.

Truth: When Paul came to faith in Jesus, he began discovering how good life in Christ was in comparison to the things he’d been pursuing before. In fact, he came to consider everything else as garbage in comparison to knowing Jesus more. The more you taste that which is qualitative, the less you’ll want the empty, counterfeit things sin has to offer.

The Point: The pursuit of life in Christ leads to the death of: sin sounding delicious

Week 3 (1 Corinthians 15:32b-33 NLT)

Intro: Sometimes the sin weeds are difficult to kill because they’re attached to a relationship. And the hard thing is, those relationships usually aren’t ALL bad!

Truth: When Paul confronted the Corinthian Christians for being influenced into a lifestyle of sin through relationships with other people, he pointed out the differences in their core worldviews, and then told them to not be fooled. “Don’t be fooled” can mean a few different things, but one thing we know for sure is that “don’t be fooled” means take notice of which friends have no interest in seeing life through the lens of the gospel. There needs to be a cap on the type of influence those friends can have in your life.

The Point: The pursuit of life in Christ leads to the death of: being fooled by bad influences

Week 4 (Galatians 5:24-6:2 NLT)

Intro: Asking for help is hard. There is something inside many of us that desires independence—self-reliance even. And that often causes problems when we’re trying to kill sin weeds.

Truth: Paul is clear that pursuing life in Christ means following the leading of the Holy Spirit. And one of the things Paul says the Holy Spirit will lead you to do is to ask other believers you trust for help when you’ve been overcome by a sin issue.

The Point: The pursuit of life in Christ leads to the death of: spiritual independence