Sermon Notes 6-5-2016

Does God Care!

Why does God care about our sin?

It affects our relationships with him.

Isaiah 59:1–2 (ESV)

¹Behold, the Lord’s hand is not shortened, that it cannot save, or his ear dull, that it cannot hear;

²but your iniquities have made a separation between you and your God, and your sins have hidden his face from you so that he does not hear.

·      God knows that sin hurts our relationship with him

·      He is the best Dad ever and he knows what’s best for you

·      And he knows every time we sin we separate a little form him

We see it with the very first sin

Genesis 3:8 (ESV)

⁸And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.

·      That first sin separated Adam and eve from God

·      And Sin has continued to separate us

·      We have to be very aware of our sin, very aware of what damage it does

Sin damages our relations with others

·      We feel guilt

o   Like Adam and Eve, we feel guilty

o   And guilt leads to desperation

o   And desperation leads to bad choices

·      We lack compassion

o   We tend to use people

o   We tend to hurt the ones closest to us

·      We lose sight of what’s important

o   We lose sight of our mission

o   We forget what God did for us, and the mission he put us on

·      Our hearts get hardened

Ephesians 4:17–19 (NLT)

¹⁷With the Lord’s authority I say this: Live no longer as the Gentiles do, for they are hopelessly confused.

¹⁸Their minds are full of darkness; they wander far from the life God gives because they have closed their minds and hardened their hearts against him.

¹⁹They have no sense of shame. They live for lustful pleasure and eagerly practice every kind of impurity.

·      We tend to spiral out of control

·      Following the little “G” inside us all

·      And we wander away from God and his word

Sin prevents change

Sin creates a lot of things that block true change in our life

Fear

·      Fear of failure

·      Fear of others

·      Fear of God

But in our obedience we:

1 John 4:18 (ESV)

¹⁸There is no fear in love, but perfect love casts out fear. For fear has to do with punishment, and whoever fears has not been perfected in love.

Pride

Proverbs 11:2 (ESV)

²When pride comes, then comes disgrace, but with the humble is wisdom.

What does pride look like

·      When we do what we want out ahead of God

·      Frustrated with others because they don't do it our way

·      Irritated by others

·      Rebellion

·      Control and Manipulation

·      Fear

·      Needing to be needed

·      Needing approval and acceptance

·      Get embarrassed easily

·      Sensitive and hurt easily

·      You say, "I'm a good person" but you don't feel appreciated

·      "I can do it better than them"

·      Don't they know who I am and what I have to offer?"

·      You think everything that happens is because of you

·      You think everything that happens is about you

·      Offended continually

·      Feeling guilty

·      Self-exaltation - Bragging and exalts own achievements

·      False Humility - looking for someone to see your humility

·      False sense of responsibility (false burden bearing) - you are not Jesus

The opposite of Pride, Humble!

·      Nothing anyone says hurts them, they are never offended and if they are, they repent

·      Submits to authority

·      Forgive quickly and unconditionally

·      Esteem others over own self and desires

·      Trust God in every area of their life

·      Peace, stability and soundness

·      Teachable

·      Admits when they are wrong

·      Sees the good in everyone

Shame

·      Sin brings shame

·      We feel same about our past

·      We feel same because we know what we are doing is wrong

·      And we know God knows

·      Sin brings a flood of shame to us, and Satan uses that

·      When we bring or sin to the light

·      That shame goes away

Romans 8:33 (ESV)

³³Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies.

·      When we give our sin to Jesus we know God has forgiven us and the shame melts away!

We become judgmental and accusatory

·      Suspicious - always looking for evil intent

·      Bitterness – we keep records of wrongs done

·      Easily Offended

·      Envy and Jealousy

·      Murder - gossip/slander

·      Scrambled thoughts - misunderstandings - this is NOT an accident - Kingdom of Satan wants to separate us and if he can do it by causing misunderstandings, then so be it.

This cause us to

·      To feel unworthy, guilty, not pleasing to God

·      We Work against, ourselves, God and others

·      Causes us to be Co-Dependent, burden bearing, we play “holy spirit” over another's sin

·      We Falsely charges others with your own sins (we accuse others of things that we ourselves have done.)

Causes us to become hopeless and thankless

Proverbs 13:12 (NLT)

¹²Hope deferred makes the heart sick, but a dream fulfilled is a tree of life.

·      When we Sin, we become hopeless

·      We start to get a dark view of the world and others

·      We lose hope in God and his grace

·      We lose hope in others

·      We begin to look for it in other places other than God (Idolatry)

There is true hope in Jesus

Romans 8:24 (NLT)

²⁴We were given this hope when we were saved. (If we already have something, we don’t need to hope for it.

We stop being thankful for what we have and start looking in other places

·      We start to need a fix, something new to bring us hope and make us thankful

·      It’s like a drug, and these two things go hand in hand

Colossians 3:15 (NLT)

¹⁵And let the peace that comes from Christ rule in your hearts. For as members of one body you are called to live in peace. And always be thankful.

So how much does God care about your sin? He sent his only Son to deal with it!

Romans 8:3 (NLT)

³The law of Moses was unable to save us because of the weakness of our sinful nature. So God did what the law could not do. He sent his own Son in a body like the bodies we sinners have. And in that body God declared an end to sin’s control over us by giving his Son as a sacrifice for our sins.

·      God the perfect Dad, gave us a gift

·      A pass, a get out of Jail free card

·      He sent Jesus, our big brother, to save us

John 3:16 (NLT)

¹⁶“For this is how God loved the world: He gave his one and only Son, so that everyone who believes in him will not perish but have eternal life.

·      He loves you so much, he sent Jesus to die for us

·      To pay the price for your sins

·      And God wants us to see the devastation sin causes in our lives

o   The devastation to our relationship with him

o   The devastation to our relationship with others

o   The consequences that it cause

o   The heart aches it cause

o   And most of all to save us from a fiery eternal life in Hell!

2 Corinthians 5:21 (NLT)

²¹For God made Christ, who never sinned, to be the offering for our sin, so that we could be made right with God through Christ.

·      Jesus cleaned the slate

·      He took the nails

·      Took the beating

·      The the ridicule

·      So you wouldn’t have to

·      And all God ask in return

·      Is belief (justification)

·      And repentance (Sanctification)

And that we will leave for next week!