https://www.bible.com/events/49575323
Church of the Nazarene – East Rockingham Campus
Hurdles Part 2
A little dance with darkness…
We are continuing in our 4-part teaching series called “Hurdles”.
Throughout this series we are going to face some of the key obstacles or hurdles that keep us from a full and abundant life in Christ.
Today we are talking about the hurdle of “little sins”.
It can be easy for us to think that the smaller consequences of some sin, means they are not that big of a deal. But that’s not a biblical view of sin. In fact, the bible knows nothing of “little sins”. The bible says that all sin is serious and it is always a hurdle in our relationship with Jesus.
Sin shows up in the human story in chapter 3 of Genesis.
In Genesis 1 and 2, God has created all things. All of creation and the cosmos, the land, the sea, and everything in them. He has created Adam and Eve, male and female, in his image. God has given them an identity, a calling and purpose for their lives. They are his co-agents, in creation, they enjoy perfect intimacy together.
This is God’s vision for humanity- for your life and mine. That hasn’t changed.
In this relationship, God gives them a choice. For a relationship to be loving, for it to be real intimacy, there has to be choice. Without a choice, Adam and Eve would have been God’s Robots, not sons and daughters.
So God has given them unlimited freedom with only one rule, one choice to obey him.
The devil comes into the story as a snake, and he goes after Eve at the point of this choice. He convinces her that God is holding out on them, that he cant be trusted.
Genesis 3:6
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it.
Sin enters our story.
Sin wasn’t just the eating of a forbidden fruit, the breaking of a rule. It was the failure to be fully human as God intended. It was a fracture of trust and relationship with God, it was outside of his planned design for their lives. Friends that’s sin.
In the Old Testament Hebrew Language, the word for sin is Khata (Ha-tah). In the New Testament Greek the word is Hamartia. Both words carry the same idea of missing the mark, or a failure to make the goal, or coming up short.
The bible pictures sin as a failure to live into our calling as image bearers of God, a coming up short of our truest calling as his sons and daughters.
Genesis 3:8-9
Then the man and his wife heard the sound of the Lord God as he was walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and they hid from the Lord God among the trees of the garden. But the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”
We choose sin, it continually separates us from relationship with God and distorts our lives. God in his mercy and grace continually comes after us, inviting us to turn away from our sin and into right relationship with him.
To be transformed, to be healed, and remade into the design he has for our lives and our flourishing.
And the healing and renewal is a critical part of God’s mercy because sin, according to the bible, is not just wrong actions, a list of rules broken. Sin has distorted our humanity- it’s a nature, a drive within us. Sin is part of our nature now as a result of Genesis 3.
Romans 8:7
The mind governed by the flesh is hostile to God; it does not submit to God’s law, nor can it do so.
1 John 1:9
If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
The Good news for us today, is that Jesus came to deal with both. The guilt of our wrong actions, and the corruption and impurity of our heart.
1 Thessalonians 5:23-24
May God himself, the God of peace, sanctify you through and through. May your whole spirit, soul and body be kept blameless at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. The one who calls you is faithful, and he will do it.
Dealing with sin on our own seems hopelessly impossible, and to be honest, it pretty much is. But God does not expect us to deal with it alone, he invites us to surrender out life to him, including our sin, and allow him to come into our lives and make us new.
To literally restore and renew his image witin us, that we wouldn’t even desire sin anymore.
That’s the hope today friends- that’s the invitation.
1 John 1:5-9
This is the message we have heard from him and declare to you: God is light; in him there is no darkness at all. If we claim to have fellowship with him and yet walk in the darkness, we lie and do not live out the truth. But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, his Son, purifies us from all sin. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.
If we will confess our sins- that is we agree with the Lord that what we are doing is wrong, that it is sin and falling short of who he has called us to be, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins, and purity us from all unrighteousness.
Are you ready to clear the hurdle of sin in your life? Walk in the light, as he is in the light.