Contact:

josh@joshhhunt.com

575.650.4564

• Sermons. Adapt Johnny Hunt's sermons or write your own.
• Small group study. I will write a Good Question study for your use in groups. (Email me if you have a starting date.)
• Book. Invite your people to read Johnny's book at home for maximum learning.

Pulpit-press has one other book available for you to use as a church wide campaign: After Life by Brandon Park. Other books in the works include:

• Wise Up! (A study of Proverbs) by Steve Reynolds (Summer release)
• Rooted by Brad Whitt (Summer release)
• Shattered Dreams (A study of Ruth) by Patrick Mead (Fall release)

Johnny Hunt: the downward spiral

When I do sin, I feel rejection. I feel condemnation. Condemnation has no place in the Christian life. “There is therefore now no condemnation to those who are in Christ Jesus.” Romans 8:1 (NKJV)

The feeling of condemnation is almost intolerable. We hate feeling condemned. There are two ways of dealing with this feeling of condemnation. We can bring our sins to Jesus and ask Him to forgive us, or we can lower the standard and pretend like our sin is not all that serious. If we go the second route we always wonder how big of a problem that sin really is. Sin is a big problem. The only solution was the cross.

The devil wants me to think that God doesn’t really care. He wants me to think God doesn’t love me like He does. He wants me to think I don’t matter to God. He wants me to think that God does not have my best interest at heart. He wants me to think that God’s ways are not good.

Feeling condemned leads to the feeling of worthlessness. I feel like I don’t matter. This leads to self-hatred.

I am thinking now of a dear friend who walked down this path. She is in the hospital right now because she bought the lie that she is worthless. Her husband walked out on her and she couldn’t take it. She thought it meant she was unlovable. She was discarded and felt she would never be loved again.

She doesn’t know how deeply God loves her. She doesn’t know God weeps with her. She doesn’t know God is crazy about her. When we don’t accept God’s love, it leads to a terrible place.

Feelings of condemnation leads to feelings of worthlessness, which leads to self-hatred. Self-hatred leads to negative behavior. Self-hatred will drive you to do destructive things—things that will destroy your life and the lives of the people around you.

When we engage in negative behavior it leads to feelings of condemnation, and the cycle continues.

We tend to work on this behavior by trying hard not to do bad things. Sometimes churches will work on behavior, trying only to help people to clean up their act. John Ortberg calls this, “sin management.” That is not the gospel. If we want to see people changed, we have to look on the inside.

Consecration prevents conformity.

The more consecrated I am to God, the less I will be conformed to the ways of this world.