The problem of our dark side
Text: 1 John 1:5-2:6
Topic: How to cope with our dark side
Big idea: We grope around in darkness but God has a way out of the darkness into His light.
Intro:
A fly was buzzing along one morning when he saw a lawn
mower someone had left out in their front yard. He flew
over and sat on the handle, watching the children going
down the sidewalk on their way to school.
One little boy tripped on a crack and fell, spilling his
lunch on the sidewalk. He picked himself up, put his
lunch back in the bag and went on. But he missed a piece
of bologna. The fly had not eaten that morning and he sure
was hungry. So he flew down and started eating the
bologna. In fact he ate so much that he could not fly, so
he waddled across the sidewalk, across the lawn, up the
wheel of the lawn mower, up the handle, and sat there
resting and watching the children.
There was still some bologna laying there on the sidewalk.
He was really stuffed, but that baloney sure did look
good.
Finally temptation got the best of him and he jumped off
the handle of the lawn mower to fly over to the baloney.
But alas he was too full to fly and he went splat!!,
killing him instantly.
The moral of the story: Don’t fly off the handle when you
are full of baloney.
There’s a dark side to us, that’s as reckless as the fly. It does not matter what the costs are, you just got to have it. Humanity is like that, so full of baloney, they can’t see it and they fly off the handle, thinking they can handle it all, and be satisfied only to end up splat.
In CHICAGO Tues. July 30, 2002 - Two men, Anthony Stuckey, 49, and Jack Moore, 62, both of Chicago, died from multiple injuries and blunt trauma. Apparently, their van jumped a curb and crashed into pedestrians. They died after an angry mob pulled them out and beat them with bricks, witnesses and police said.
Again more suicide bombings… both stories people who perpetrated these acts of violence, would probably feel justified, perhaps feel that justice is done…
The mob, the suicide bombers – their lives now can now be summed in one word –splat!
In the same way, many believers afflicted with problem of their dark side emerging. Many experience it as tension, pressure, frustration, turmoil … Expressed by Paul in Rom 7:19-22 (NLT) :
“19When I want to do good, I don’t. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. 20But if I am doing what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it. 21It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22I love God’s law with all my heart.”
One word – splat! What’s the answer? Isn’t Christian life suppose to be peaceful? As hard as many try they fail or they fall and some fall pretty hard. Is that game over then? What has God’s Word gotta say to this?
First, …
A. God is light.
1. No dark side in Him (v.5) God is in no way like us… there is no darkness in Him. Reason we have tension cuz intuitively we know we built to be with God.
2. Implication: Christians – must exhibit no dark side to coexist with God (v.6)
Light cannot coexist with darkness. Illus. Light dispels darkness. Cave experience in the Mammoth Caves National Park. When Tour guide switched off the flashlight. Pure darkness. One flashlight comes on – relief! Light destroys darkness. Light makes darkness disappear. Light comforts. Light lights the way, you can know where you are going, light helps avoid danger!
So light is good for us…
Oct. 2001 edition of the National Geographic had an article on the “Power of
Light”. The article’s introduction:
”Light reveals the world to us. Body and soul crave it. Light sets our biological clocks. It triggers in our brains the sensations of color. Light feeds us, supplying the energy of plants to grow. It inspires us with special effects like rainbows and sunsets. Light gives us life- changing tools, from incandescent bulbs to lasers and fibre optics. Scientists don’t fully understand what light is or what it can do. They just know that it will illuminate our future”.
3. Summons to walk in light (v.7)
Though we may not comprehend God fully, He will give us a great future… trusting this light guarantees we won’t end up - splat!
His light is good for us.
B. Humans are dark.
1. There is a dark side (v.8)
Can any one name the seven deadly sins? Why are these specific sins considered “deadly”? Why these sins, and why not a different seven?
Where in the bible is this list found? It isn’t. This list was formulated by early Christian leaders who wanted a convenient way to instruct those who could not read the scriptures for themselves. The seven sins enumerated in this list are not found in one specific chapter and verse, but are found scattered throughout the scriptures; from Genesis to Revelation.
Why are they “deadly” sins? One word –splat!
Whenever a thought or an action diminishes love, love for God and for people – sin is committed. There really is a thin line between darkness and light.
1. Sloth – our need for rest turns to sloth and apathy.
2. Gluttony – our hunger turns to gluttony the fly that flew off the handle that was full of baloney.
3. Envy
June 25, 2002 article Fortune.com - Martha Stewart’s paper losses reportedly are already approaching $200 million. If she is charged with insider trading and found guilty she could be fined--though jail is not likely. She could also lose her spot on CBS, and would certainly be thrown off the board of the New York Stock Exchange, where she was named a director only June 6. One board member believes Dick Grasso has already been discussing Martha’s place on the board. Although it’s largely a ceremonial job, since Martha is in effect a one-woman brand, her reputation is critical. I don’t think she would lose it all if found guilty, but it would be a crippling blow.
To be candid, there are many people rooting against Martha. Some folks in the media think her doings--hand-painting wooden coat hangers--are silly. Others are jealous. Still others don’t like her, and it’s true, she isn’t the easiest person to work with.
Admiration and honor now turn to envy.
4. Greed
quest for material welfare turns to greed Financial disasters shook the corporate world stage, ENRON, WORLDCOM,
5. Lust
hunger foe personal intimacy turns to lust - Rom Catholic priests now in big trouble
6. Anger (Wrath)
pain turns to anger road rage
7. Pride
become lonely people –stubborn… die alone, we want to be esteemed, selfesteem turns to pride
Three boys were playing and were bragging about their fathers. The first boy said: "My dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper and calls it a poem. He gets $50 for it."
Second boy said, "That’s nothing! My dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, he calls it a song and he gets $100 for it."
The third boy then said to the first two: "I got you both beat. My dad scribbles a few words on a piece of paper, calls it a sermon and it takes eight people to collect all the money!"
Pride will prevent us from agreeing with God’s estimation of our condition. Is there not one among us who has not fallen?
C. What can I do?
Legislate more, more police, give out laws - In a Washington Post piece Tuesday, Prison Fellowship founder (and Christianity Today columnist) Charles Colson responded to the paper’s editorial assertion that "it is naive to suppose that business can be regulated by some kind of national honor code."
"Watergate did not happen for want of laws," said Colson, who served seven months in prison for his involvement in the scandal.
What fools we are when we think we can legislate away human immorality. We certainly need laws, but I stand as living proof that the cure comes not from laws and statutes but from the transforming of the human heart -- the embracing of a moral code to which conscience is bound. The real hope for corporate America lies in cultivating conscience, a disposition to know and do what is right. And yet I have surveyed business school curricula and find that hardly any teach ethics.
Rather than enacting new and ineffective laws, Colson says, the answer is "to take a bracing dose of reality, to recognize that the enemy is moral relativism and confusion, to embrace once again a solid code by which morality can be informed and then to go about the business of strengthening the conscience of the nation."
1. Not all is lost. There is hope. “IF WE CONFESS” (v.9)
2. Summons to agree with God’s word concerning this. (v.10)
3. Trust the defense of Jesus. Why? Cross. (2:1-2)
4. Obey Jesus commands to love. (2:3-4)
5. Exhibit a lifestyle of Jesus (2:5-6)
Let’s stop playing religion…
Sir Alexander Fleming, upon introducing his newly discovered drug,
penicillin, warned against taking too little of it. An underdose, he said would permit germs to remain in the system thereby allowing one to build up an immunity to the drug. These immune germs could be "passed on to other individuals so that the thoughtless person playing with penicillin treatments may be responsible for the death of another" if not himself as well.
Something similar to this carelessness takes place in the spiritual realm where masses of people seem to be playing with religion - taking in just enough of it to become immune to the real thing. Many people attend just enough religious services to temporarily quiet their conscience; they attend just enough weddings, funerals, and special observances to keep them from longing for a genuine and thorough encounter with God who is so absent from their commitment. They have just enough religion to make them immune to the real thing.
Let’s walk as Jesus did… a humble daily lifestyle marked by openness to God every minute. He can take daily things, worldly things, like mustard seeds, pig farmers, tax-collectors, to illustrate the beauty of the Kingdom of God.
John Fischer “I often hear Christians needing to justify their involvement in secular activities or pursuits. It might be their golf game or an obsession with model railroads or a penchant for mystery novels. These need not be things that leave God out. When you think about it, no one can ever shut God out of anything; we simply choose to not include him in our thinking.” If we do, this is to our disadvantage. He didn’t leave; we just shut him out of our minds. Walk as Jesus did looked at how use His time on earth redemptively. Jesus walked about a sinful broken world and did not have the darkness walk all over him.
Let’s come to a new, fresh understanding of Philippians 4:8. Finally, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things." Far from a rejection of culture, I found this truth a way we can take from our cultural experiences that which is useful to our faith. Invite God’s light in your work, life, activities, redeem it, blow away the darkness. Let not play religion, let’s walk as Jesus did, fully alive, with fullness of light burning away the darkness.
When we finally get this straightened out, we will see the world and our activity in it from a single-minded perspective. There are no longer Christian and secular things or activities. All of life is God’s.
Then we will have no problem living with God in this world. Then we will be satisfied, full of light, and not end up splat! Let’s pray!
