‘Passion for a purpose- Why did Jesus die?
To liberate a people to run away from sin
Audio version
Intro
I recently heard Greg Haslam say that as Christians we are left here on earth to cause trouble, to destabilise things.
I suppose that is especially true of preachers. According to Greg the task of the preacher is to tell both the church and the world what neither of them want to hear!
Actually I am glad that for us as a church most of us DO want to hear what the preachers have to say, and I trust that it will also be true of this mornings message.
But as our job is to comfort the afflicted and afflict the comfortable I make no apologies this morning if I unsettle you a little- in fact that is may aim!
Heb 12:1Therefore, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us also lay aside every weight, and sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, 2 looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.
3 Consider him who endured from sinners such hostility against himself, so that you may not grow weary or fainthearted. 4 In your struggle against sin you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
12 Therefore lift your drooping hands and strengthen your weak knees, 13 and make straight paths for your feet, so that what is lame may not be put out of joint but rather be healed. 14 Strive for peace with everyone, and for the holiness without which no one will see the Lord. 15 See to it that no one fails to obtain the grace of God; that no “root of bitterness” springs up and causes trouble, and by it many become defiled; 16 that no one is sexually immoral or unholy like Esau, who sold his birthright for a single meal. 17 For you know that afterward, when he desired to inherit the blessing, he was rejected, for he found no chance to repent, though he sought it with tears.
We have been talking a lot about running for God- about being a missional people, about fulfilling our roles in the Kingdom of God. What is it that holds us back?
What is our main problem both as Christians and non-christians?
Is it ‘low self esteem’? Is it ‘my upbrining’ is it ‘my personality’? Is it my ‘feelings’
NO ITS SIN
This passage talks a lot about sin- what is it?
Speaking to my Grandad this week, who says he feels the world today has become a more evil place.
People criticised Ronald Reagan who died last Saturday for speaking of an ‘Evil Empire’ and challenging Michael Gorbachev to tear down the wall. Now, after he died even Gorbachev thanked him for what he achieved in contributing to the fall of communism.
People also criticised Bush for talking of an ‘axis of evil’. History will give its verdict on that, but to many today even the use of the word evil is red rag to a bull in any circumstance. ‘It is not a concept I find helpful’ someone once said.
SIN if it is conceived of at all= paedophilia, mass murderer and not a lot else in our society
WRONG- it means missing the mark. Do you ever think oops I did it again!;?
What is the Christians relationship to sin? To struggle against it
Some Christians will claim that sin is less and less of an issue in their lives. We certainly should expect to know greater and greater freedom from it. However, we should never relax and think our battle is over. I recently heard of a Christian who said as they had got older they really hadn’t needed to repent of sin for quite some while. Sadly that person very quickly lost their way and fell away from the church.
If anything I am more aware of my battle against sin the older I get. I am certainly more aware of my shortcomings- there is nothing like marriage and having children to show you those!
I am also aware that the root of every sin is right there in my heart, and sins that I might have never committed can sometimes rear their heads as temptations having not done so for years.
But what is sin? Sin ultimately is about fulfilling my desires and having what I want without restraint. People want to do whatever they want, when they want it, with no prohibitions.
The essence of sin= self-fullfillment, which is also the god of our age!
Sin is I in the middle.
‘Its all about me Jesus, and all this is for me, for my glory and my fame,
its not about you, as if I should do things your way….’
In our society, who does things for anyone else any more?
As Christians, we must ask ourselves carefully are we any different?
On a blog recently I read this indictment of Western Christianity.
We love only ourselves, and embracing God is only for our convenience"
What a challenge that is to me personally and to all of us. Does being a Christian make my life easier? Does it give me a social network? Security? A sense of destiny and purpose to my life? Instruction for living to avoid messing up my cosy middle class life? Moral guidance?
Is it all about me?
Christ rather calls us to a life of love and sacrifice for others. We would much rather he blessed us materially much of the time. The rest of the world it would seem, can quite literally go to hell.
What about what we have failed to do. ‘I have left undone the things I ought to have done’
IF we are failing to reach out to others with the gospel, to care for them as we ought, and to demonstrate Christ to them, are we not committing the most heinous sin?
You might say, but I haven’t actually done anything. True, but lets suppose you were driving a car at 30mph in a 30mph zone, and kids were playing. Suppose one ran out into the road and you didn’t even try and stop. Your failure to act by putting your foot on the pedal would surely be a terrible sin and you would be punishded for it.
Or lets suppose you were a doctor, and you knew your patient had cancer. You didn’t want to upset them, so you didn’t tell them anything. The cancer was cureable, but only if treated. How do you suppose the GMC would view such inactivity? Would they buy the excuse ‘but I didn’t want to upset him, I was just trying to preserve my friendship with him’
But we fail to act regularly in communicating a message that could save souls. Do we really believe this message? I remember one atheist saying that if he believed the gospel were true he would crawl across a continent covered with broken glass on his knees, just to tell one person about it.
How do we deal with sin in our lives?
We could easily begin to feel condemned and useless about now- like failures.
Many of us go through our lives feeling like some kind of fraud who is in danger of being caught out for what we really are.
Too many times, our response to those kind of feelings is to just patch things up by pouring the oils of comfort on the wound. Actually we need to expose the wound of sin, and cauterise it by facing it and dealing with it.
You feel like a failure, because you are one. So don’t say ‘I feel like a failure rather say I AM a failure, but one God has rescued!’
Probably no more so than anyone else, but none the less a failure. You are indeed utterly helpless to struggle against sin without the aid of Jesus.
The essence of the gospel is good news to failures.
So if you realise you are one you are half way to the liberty God intended for us....
Thankfully he died that we could be forgiven, and released from the power of sin and live a life where we run away from it constantly and towards him.
We have a race to run, we cannot be tied down by the weights of our own sin, nor indeed by the consequences of others sin in our lives. Were you let down by your parents, by a partner, by what the world has thrown against you? Well Jesus died to set you free to give you a clean slate, to start again!!
This message is one we can never get away from as Christians; we must keep coming back to the foot of the cross.
We often don’t realise that God sometimes sends sorrow our way for a purpose
2 Cor 7 :9-10 I rejoice, not because you were grieved, but because you were grieved into repenting. For you felt a godly grief, so that you suffered no loss through us.10 For godly grief produces a repentance that leads to salvation without regret, whereas worldly grief produces death. 11 For see what earnestness this godly grief has produced in you
Sorrow is often associated with unresolved sin- either that I have committed or that I am holding onto that others have committed to me. A ROOT of BITTERNESS is itself a sin, and will hold us back and stop us from running
Ask God today: "God, is there anything in my life you are not happy with, that you want me to repent of?" You will experience great joy if you allow him to search your heart and root out any sin that may be hiding in there.
May God bless you and do good to you and deliver you. Remember though, that the person you need delivering from most of all is yourself
Sorrow- repentance What don’t you like about my life?
Sorrow and depression are not always a sign that we have something we need to sort out either with God or someone else, but it is true to say they often are. It is amazing what forgiveness can do to depression sometimes.
Having said all that, if you are depressed listening to this, please dont take this as an indication that you should stop all your tablets suddenly- that is not usually a very good idea at all! Indeed sometimes people need to take tablets before they can even begin to think about some of the issues which reinforce the patterns of thinking involved in depression.
Depression is really complex, and a you may well need a proper assessment by a doctor- so if you need to go see one, thats what they are there for! But if you are a Christian, why not have a chat to a godly leader as well- thats what they are there for too!
Dealing with our own and others sin may lift our depression.
Actually we are often too preoccupied with our feelings and not with facts eg
Feelings statements have largely replaced beliefs and statements of facts.
‘I feel unloved’ ‘But the fact is God loves you’ ‘I know that, but…I cant help the way you feel’. But your ‘feeling’ is calling God a liar!!!!
Jesus died to free us from sin, not merely to save us in our sin!
He died to deal with the
PENALTY of sin The wrath of God- future punishment.
POWER of sin through Christ died to sin, do not let it rule
PRESENT effects of sin eg forgiveness of others
A clean slate…… is the aim to enable us to run without any weights the race God sets before us.
When running need also to know the destination- focus not on what running from but what running to. Ie running to Jesus, the exciting life he has for us and towards love.
‘Love for God and ones neighbour constitutes the sum of Gods requirements for the Christian. The man who loves needs no counselling. Love cements relationships between God and man and man and man. While love attracts, fear repels. When love gives, lust grabs. What love builds, hatred destroys. With love communication flourishes; with resentment it withers. Love is the ultimate answer to all the problems of living with which the Christian counsellor deals. Love therefore is the goal’
Jay Adams The Christian Counsellors Manual p 141
We have an exciting race ahead, lets get rid of the weights that many of us have been carrying for years! Weights of guilt over our sin, of anger over others, of bitterness and regret about what might have been. You cant run with weights on.
Lets realise that there is a time when repentance is not on offer. I hope no one here will be in that category- if you hear his voice today don’t harden your hearts instead repent and turn to God and join the community of God.
