Wednesday, February 17, 2016

Great Themes of the Kingdom: Temptation & Sin, 2/14/16

Sermon 2-14-16 temptation and sin              Gal 5:13-18
13 You, my brothers and sisters, were called to be free. But do not use your freedom to indulge the flesh[a]; rather, serve one another humbly in love. 14 For the entire law is fulfilled in keeping this one command: “Love your neighbor as yourself.”[b] 15 If you bite and devour each other, watch out or you will be destroyed by each other.16 So I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh.17 For the flesh desires what is contrary to the Spirit, and the Spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever[c] you want. 18 But if you are led by the Spirit, you are not under the law.

Series- kingdom themes – sin and temptation
imagine a discussion of sin that was hopeful, not hateful……

We know about sin….. we get it.  Catholics in northern England have a mobile confessional.

Sin – why we don’t talk about it
          Specifics vs selfishness – tax evasion/gluttony/gossip

Living in character of Jesus holds us together – in him are all things held together
 17 He is before all things, and in him all things hold together. Col 1:17

Sin fragments a life
It is unnatural

We know that intrinsically eccl 3 – he has set eternity in their hearts
Sociopaths

Nature of the gospel
·         I talk to people all the time whose minds are so worried about sin
Honestly, it hurt to listen to it all. 
·         Here is another fine person who has been raised on the gospel of how bad everyone is. 
·         Many American churches have fed this to our people for so long that it is hard to overcome. 
·        It is hard to help people that are infected with this to see the truth.
How do you want to raise your children… filled with fear and worry or filled with love
·        
On this I will stand to my dying day- A gospel based on sin is not good news
·         The gospel of Jesus Christ does not begin with sin, it begins with love.  God so loved the world that he gave. 
·        Of course we are sinners, but we do a disservice to our Father and to ourselves when we spend our lives focusing on how bad of sinners we are instead of the amazing mercy and love of God.

In fact, when we spend too much time talking about our sin, the focus is on us.  It's about us.  When we talk about God's love, the focus is on Him and he gets the glory.  The gospel of Jesus Christ begins with love not sin.  We need to Get that.
your image of God will say everything about how you live your life
if you think god is angry and judgemental- you will live in fear and distress
if you think that god is loving and merciful, then you can live with joy
          pay your money, take your choice
          if you hang your hat on the angry god scriptures you can have an angry god
          but there are so many scriptures on love
jesus talked about the abundant life
jn 10:10 10 The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. [have it more abundantly]

punishment - Sometimes people say, O, God is punishing me for my sins
If we got what we deserve, none of us would be here.
Do you think you can bear the burden of your sin?

E Stanley jones says
God doesn’t punish us for sin, sin is its own punishment

sin the great deciever

is a great deceiver. It always promises what it cannot deliver. The end result is pain.
list of Temptations of us
What are our primary temptations? My list

To covet.  To want more.  

Pride - To want it to go our way. Don’t challenge me.  I want to be in charge. To demean others, to brag, my dog is bigger than your dog

Sloth - To want the easy way - To quit, to give up, to wallow, to worry, to cheat

Revenge-To act w retribution.  Eye for an eye.To hurt back

It seems that it all boils down to what we want
I am the center of it

There is a sin that I think of every time I come back from a mission trip.  It is the sin of forgetting.

We go, and we see, and we think, how can it be like this?  We have so much, they have so little.  It is very easy for us to fall back into our comfortable life, and forget the people that God has called us to love.

is God trying to make our lives difficult?
Why is God against this stuff?
"it's not that God doesn't want you to have fun, God is against sin because it is bad for you.".
Why is God against this stuff?

1. god wants to save us from the pain

it is bad for us -
succumbing to temptation leads to brokenness and guilt

you were convinced that it would be ok, but now you see it hurts

the farmer who picks up the snake – you knew what I was when you picked me up

A few words about Judging others -
judging others Only the holy spirit convicts of sin
It is not our job to condemn others
It is gods job to talk w them about their lives
And he does it with the most gracious and loving ways

The job of the church is to catch them first, then clean them
·         Someone suggested in a facebook post the other day that the purpose of the church is to point out sin or call out sin.
·         While I do believe in sin and I have personal experience with it, this is not the job of the church or the job of the Christian.  
·         That is God's job and God's alone.  
·         When we point the finger at others, all we do is come across as hateful.  There is nothing Christian about that.  
·         We end up driving away the very people that we would have hoped to have won.
·         Over and over Jesus dealt with sinners with grace and compassion.  
·         The only people he crushed were those who were crushing others, the Pharisees.  ,
·         too many modern Christians sound more like the Pharisees and not enough like Jesus.
  
When we think of sin, we think of repentance – turn from turn towards
Repentance means to turn around.  To stop one action or behavior and turn to another. 

We tend to think of repentance as turning from sin.  But, what do we turn towards? 
I repent.  I want to stop the bad behavior, but I also want to move towards the great lover of my soul.
jesus in my heart or me in jesus heart
our mission statement – connecting jesus to me? no its connecting people to Jesus
master blaster……
we have left every thing to follow you…

Mt 19:27
27 Peter answered him, “We have left everything to follow you! What then will there be for us?”

so lets end this painful sermon
First, lets admit that everyone has a dark side. All have sinned

Second, regardless of what you have done, no one is beyond hope. That is the great hope of the Christian message. No amount or depth of sin in your past can trump the grace of God.
If you question that remember Saul of Tarsus.

Third, even though your past is soiled, anyone can find a new beginning with God. It is never too late

whatever you are facing, God will make a way for you to get out of it

You do not have to succumb habitually

fight temptations-
1Put your mind somewhere else
2Make good choices-
-avoid compromising situations
-Don’t put yourself in positions of temptation

3stay connected to Christian friends
find new friends

4pray read scriptures [find words of hope]
Jesus is tempted in the wilderness Mt 4 - how did he counter? by the word

5Call upon the name of the Lord for strength
take it to Jesus
lord give me strength
We have a resolution for our sin, Jesus Christ the righteous

1 john 2:1-2 My dear children, I write this to you so that you will not sin. But if anybody does sin, we have an advocate with the Father—Jesus Christ, the Righteous One. He is the atoning sacrifice for our sins, and not only for ours but also for the sins of the whole world.
So We have hope in Christ
and so we turn to him. We throw ourselves upon him.  We trust in him
one day, one step at at time

– lets pray.

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