I quite #2

Northside Church

I quit #2

Jamey Mills

1/15/23

Good Morning Northside… My name is Jamey and I’m the lead pastor here at Northside… It’s great to have you here or online…

Thanks Gary,

Thank you so much for sharing a bit of who you are…

It’s always been the plan… to switch from a temporary MT (leadership) to an elder board. That jump usually happens anywhere between years 3 and 5…

We’ve handed out documents to explain the change… the only real difference is… Elders require an affirmative vote from the members at Northside…

We are hoping to install NS’s elder board on Feb 5, but that will require an affirmative vote from NS members… that vote is happening on Jan 22 and 29…

For Gary Eaton, Bill Mancuso, Bobby Hemmer, and Jonnathan Powell.

My nature of my role, I am an elder at NS.

If you have any questions please call or email the office.

Today is our second week in a new sermon series we are calling I quit… (Slide)

The new year is often a time of evaluation, setting goals and resolutions… I think the aim is to become a better version of ourselves…

Last week I mentioned that it often involves…

Last week I mentioned that resolutions often involve

Starting something new

quitting something

Or the desire to do or see something differently.

Wherever I think about resolutions, I think about times that I wish I would have listened to someone… or sometimes even regrets from listening to the wrong people…

A time where you wished you would have listened… that would have helped you avoid pain, hurt, heartache and regret…

One silly example is a time when a kid in my youth group… Jason… decide to go down one of those massive fiberglass slides with wax paper under his feet…

He made it about 10 feet and then crashed hard…

And it made that noise of skin across a gym floor the rest of the way down…

It was so bad I had to take him to the ER.

Brandi wanted me to use an example of when I should have listened to her, but I couldn't think of one.

The bible is absolutely full of passages that talk about how there is wisdom in turning our ears toward the truth, the right things… and wise counsel

And how the beginning of foolishness is rejecting those things…

If I were to ask you…

What is the biggest issue in your life right now, what would you say?

There is no shortage of potential answers…

Financial

work

Marital

Kids

Strained relationships

Health

Cultural

One author said this…

If we don’t see sin as the biggest issue we face in life… There is a huge possibility that we don't understand it and that we are underestimating the impact it has or will eventually have in and on our lives.

Sin is a subject that no one wants to talk about anymore…

The truth is… sin takes up a lot of real estate in the Bible… the only explanation I have is…

It matters a lot to God. and why do you think that is?

Today’s sermon is about coming to this place where we quit taking sin lightly…

I want us to wrestle with three questions…

What is sin?

Why does it matter?

What can I do about it?

What is sin?

If I were to ask you to define sin or what sin is, what would you say?

Sin is an archery term that literally means,

Sin is missing the mark.

As I was preparing this week, I kept wrestling with three different passages that are sort of parallel in their own way…

Gen 3 talks about the origination of sin - where it comes from.

Romans 1 we see it sort of in its advanced stages…

And Romans 7 we see a little bit about what sin looks like in the life a Christian.

We don’t have time to dive into them all but we are gonna touch on all of them.

Gen 3 teaches us that God created it all… the earth, sky, stars, land, ocean, vegetation and animals… all of it.

Gen 2 talks about how God created humanity and put them in the Garden of Eden… that word means paradise… abundance and beauty…

It was a place where humanity was intended to enjoy and experience the presence of God… Eden is a picture of the fellowship/nearness that God wants with humanity…

But it didn't take long…

Gen 3 opens with this serpent… beginning to spread confusion….

Genesis 3:1–3 NLT

The serpent was the shrewdest of all the wild animals the Lord God had made. One day he asked the woman, “Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?” “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’ ”

(NLT)

“Did God really say you must not eat the fruit from any of the trees in the garden?”

2 “Of course we may eat fruit from the trees in the garden,” the woman replied. 3 “It’s only the fruit from the tree in the middle of the garden that we are not allowed to eat. God said, ‘You must not eat it or even touch it; if you do, you will die.’ ” 4 “You won’t die!” the serpent replied to the woman. 5 “God knows that your eyes will be opened as soon as you eat it, and you will be like God, knowing both good and evil.”

6 The woman was convinced. She saw that the tree was beautiful and its fruit looked delicious, and she wanted the wisdom it would give her. So she took some of the fruit and ate it. Then she gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it, too. 7 At that moment their eyes were opened, and they suddenly felt shame

Literally, in the middle of paradise… began listening to the wrong voice…

And out of all the trees they could eat from… this one… she couldn’t look away from…

Keller says that sin is desiring something, craving something, pursuing something more than God. That being apathetic or on the outskirts of a relationship with God is the essence of sin.

From all three of these passages… Gen 3, Rom 1, and Rom 7

We learn that

Sin is opposition to God and His truth.

…

It is the opposite of who God is, how God works, and what God stands for.

It’s an attack on what matters most to God… Sin is humanity rebelling against God…

Romans 1 says that sin suppresses God’s truth.

Sin is connected to unbelief…

Did God really say that? Would he really keep me from that? Is it really bad?

John 16:9 (NLT)

9 The world’s sin is that it refuses to believe in me.

And no one's immune to it.

The Apostle Paul sure seems like one of the godliest people who ever lived… wrote the book or Romans… He said this…

Romans 7:15, 18-21 (NLT)

15 I don’t really understand myself, for I want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do what I hate. 18 And I know that nothing good lives in me, that is, in my sinful nature. I want to do what is right, but I can’t. 19 I want to do what is good, but I don’t. I don’t want to do what is wrong, but I do it anyway. 20 But if I do what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing wrong; it is sin living in me that does it.

21 I have discovered this principle of life—that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. 22 I love God’s law with all my heart. 23 But there is another power within me that is at war with my mind. This power makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. 24 Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin and death?

Here and in Gal 5, Paul mentions this battle that rages in all of us… between God’s spirit and our sinful nature…

Most scholars believe that our sinful nature is selfish above all things…

Rick Warren suggests that living for myself… putting myself as the center of the universe where everything revolves around me, how I feel, what I have to do… is the essence of sin…

Sin is often selfish.

Paul would agree… in Gal 5 he says that when we follow the “desires” or our longings… of the sinful nature… the results are clear…

Sexual immorality, impunity, lust, idolatry, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, dissention, division, envy, drunkenness,

That’s not an exhaustive list… an example of what our sinful nature looks like.

Rom 1 talks about how when we just go with it… and live out our sinful nature…God eventually gives you over to it… and the result that it brings…

James 3:16 talks about wherever you find jealousy and selfish ambition, you will find disorder and evil of every kind…

Eve saw it… it looked good… she wanted it… she allowed herself to listen to the wrong things… she twisted what God had said…

Romans 3 talks about how we’ve all sinned… and fall short of God’s glorious standard…

And so what is God’s standard…

A great place to start is the 10 commandments…

Have no other gods before me.

No idols.

Don’t take God’s name in vain.

Keep the Sabbath holy.

Honor your mom and dad.

Don’t murder

Don’t commit adultery.

Don’t steal.

Don’t lie.

Don’t covet.

Those things still matter to God… but the Bible teaches us that the primary reason God gave them to us… was to help us see the that we do fall short.

In the great commandment Jesus boiled it down to two things… that all the law and prophets hang on…

Love God

And love others…

One author said… that is why we are here…

And those two things… Loving God and Loving others in light of His truth is what it means and looks like to live out our relationship with Him…

We often think of sin as simply something we do…

Sin is not just behavioral.

James 4:17 says that sometimes sin is what we don’t do.

But sin is highly relational. It’s a relational issue.

Which leads us to the second question…

Why does sin Matter?

In Gen 3, Adam and Eve learned that

Sin brings Consequences.

Not just punishment, but discipline…

Discipline from a loving father who desires Good things for you… real life and real freedom…

There were all kinds of consequences in Gen 3…

They felt shame…

They’d struggle working and producing crops…

Painful child birth

Strife between husband and wife\

Death and disease entered the world…

And all of that is awful…

But the worst by a mile was being expelled from the garden…

That place that they were to enjoy and experience fellowship with God…

It’s relational…

Isaiah 59:2 (ESV)

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.

Sin breaks our fellowship with God.

Sin causes distance between us and Him…

But it also causes issues in our other relationships too…

Our sin may be a secret but it is not private…

Here is an honest question… has your life ever been affected by someone's sin?

Or… has outs affected them?

Can we honestly believe that the sin that impacts our lives… has to impact at all on those around us… or even on our culture.

There is a serious danger… that comes from our selfish sinful nature…

It’s my life, my truth, my choice…

It’s one of the great lies of Satan and sin… it sounds like freedom…

The culture we live in preaches that it's all about me… my choice, my truth… and that this is freedom…

The gospel says… we are to deny yourself… pick up our cross… and follow Jesus and that real life and freedom are found there…

Rom 14:7 says no man lives or dies to himself.

Our stuff… often impacts those we love far more than we realize.

Both Rick Warren and Tim Keller talk at length about how something in us dies within sin.

Sin Brings death.

Both to the world… but also in us.

Rick Warren says that not only does sin go against God, it's self destructive…

Timothy Keller says that sin is more than an action, more than a behavior… that it's a power… the Bible calls it an unseen power…

In Romans 7 Pual asked… who will free me from this life of sin and death…

In Romans 6:23 Paul wrote..

That the wages of sin, what sin earns is death…

That causes our minds, hearts, our morality, our will, our passion for God, our relationships, our hope and joy to shrivel…

A big part of that is that…

Sin blurs God’s image in me.

The bible teaches us that every single one of us was created in the image of God…

And it is the coolest thing about you. You contain a unique image of God almighty…

And I think this is also one of the major reasons God hates sin…

That if we allow our sinful nature to run wild…

It perverts His image in you. We lose sight of it… see it less and less… and others do too.

Part of what Jesus came to do is restore the image of God in you…

Sin damages real freedom.

Keller has an interesting article where he talks about how the pattern of sin… resembles the pattern of addiction.

Tolerance… or justification… just this and just for today.

Denial… that what I want/need today will be good enough tomorrow

Dissolution of my will; in trying to cope with the distress my addiction is causing… I will dive in more.

And this often happens without our permission.

If we are intended to find out hope, joy, fullness, freedom and identity in Jesus… but end up trying to produce those thing for ourselves in other ways… can you see how it will never be enough…

What can I do about sin?

There are a few things you can do…

Take sin seriously

Timothy Keller added, the main reason for all of the messiness and brokenness in the world and even in our lives comes down to sin and our failure to take the teaching and warnings of God seriously.

Part of that is repenting…

Which means turning from sin and turning toward God…

Part of it is obeying… not mindlessly, but out of our nearness to God.

In fact… Keller says that worship is a huge part of battling sin in our life…

if sin is relational… worship is part of the answer, seeking Him is a big part of it.

Part of us is

Look for the way out! 1 Corinthians 10:13

You're not facing anything that others haven't faced… God is faithful… in the face of temptation he will provide a way out…

Galatians 6:7–8 (ESV)

7 Do not be deceived: God is not mocked, for whatever one sows, that will he also reap. 8 For the one who sows to his own flesh will from the flesh reap corruption, but the one who sows to the Spirit will from the Spirit reap eternal life.

Every single one of us battle with our sinful nature… we all fall short…

It’s easy to become consumed with it… to feel stuck… to put your guard down and allow your sinful nature to run crazy in your life…

Two things…

One is… Brain Plasticity is a real thing.

The idea is… even though we likely struggle with things in our environment… even from our parents… God designed us in such a way that it can be rewired.

But lastly…

Focus on what's already been done.

Every week we provide the opportunity to take communion…

Free us from the penalty and power of sin… on the cross.

That is what communion celebrates.

Your sin… is not a meter of God’s love of you.

But He does love you enough to want to see those things come to an end in you… and for you…

What if it was less about wanting to get in your way… and more about what it is that God desires for you?

The day I began to realize these things that the bible teaches… they aren’t God’s attempt to ruin our lives, to be a stick in our mud… They aren’t aimed at robbing us of freedom…

They are a pathway to real freedom. These are things that God, in all of His wisdom… as the creator of it all… desires for you.

It was a revolutionary day for me. It helped me see and dig into this subject maybe for the first time… realizing that it was coming from a perspective of God who is on my side in this whole thing.

I feel like this is one of those major areas… if we refuse to listen, if we refuse God’s wisdom… It leads to all kinds of brokenness, pain and regret.

Closing…

SMALL GROUP SIGN UPS TODAY…

BAPTISM SUNDAY… are you interested.

VOTING next week