Session Two

Intro

Resist Distractions.

Take Notes: Here’s my journal from my time at camp as a teenager. It’s so important to take notes.

Let’s dive into life changing truth together.

What’s one of the most memorable gifts you’ve ever been given?

Tell the person next to you. For me it was a train set from my birth dad. My room at the time was right off the back of the kitchen so I was able to hang out in there while my mom cooked and still hear everyone out in the kitchen talking. It was a great way for me to be alone and have my own space but still feel like I was with everyone. Then one year I got this electric train set from my birth dad. That was a big deal because remember I was being raised by my mom and step dad so I didn’t see my birth dad at all, he was in Alaska. I loved that train and really enjoyed setting it up. After I got it setup though I was just bored. I thought, wow, it’s a circle, it just goes in a circle. Sure it had the lights and sounds of a train and it would keep going around in circles but that was it. Then I started playing around with the tracks. I would put something underneath them and try to make the train go up hills and ramp off the tracks and try to land back on them.

How many of you know trains aren’t meant to go off the tracks?

That’s a pretty obvious thing right? I was playing with one of my nephews at Christmas a few years ago and he had a wooden train set. Did you guys ever play with one of these as a kid? It was so much fun to lay on the living room floor with him and build the train tracks together. But shortly after we set it up I was bored and started building bridges and ramps in the track the train was never meant to go on. He even knew it was wrong! Listen, I’m a grown man okay and very quickly I had a toddler correcting me and telling me this was not how trains were supposed to go. So he took the ramps away and put the train back on the tracks.

Have you ever felt like your life was going off the tracks?

Some of you have been led in the wrong direction by your friends and it’s all about thinking McDonalds actually taste good! I know, I know, you’re going to say I’m wrong but I’d just like to point out, I’ve been eating that stuff since you learned to talk and it’s actually disgusting. How many of you like to mix your dips? Ranch and BBQ? My wife would love hanging out with you, but I just can’t do it. Any ketchup and mayo mixers in here? You guys need to ketchup with me later and get some help okay?! that’s not right! It just ain’t right! Seriously though…

It’s easy for us to be tempted by trends or friends to do something we know is wrong. Making fun of someone, gossiping, telling inappropriate jokes, or spread rumors about someone. Or maybe something popped up on TikTok or snapchat and you knew it wasn’t right to look at but you clicked on it and it lead you down a path to looking at naked images you never wanted to see but now it seems hopeless to stop.

Everyone knows trains aren’t meant to go off the tracks

Today we’re going to look at truth from God’s word about what life looks like off the tracks.

The word of God serves as our guardrails to stay on track.

We weren’t meant to sin. Sin is a wrongdoing that we are responsible for before God.

Paul is explaining what life looks like for people who have gone off the rails.

Romans 1:18-32

Historical Cultural Context

Literary Context

The wrath of God is being revealed from heaven against all the godlessness and wickedness of people, who suppress the truth by their wickedness, since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God’s invisible qualities—his eternal power and divine nature—have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that people are without excuse.

Text Explanation: The truth about God has been made plain to them and they are suppressing it. What does that mean? It’s like denying the truth about something so strongly that you start to believe it. Have you ever thrown your dirty clothes into your closet and had one sticking out and been questioned about it? Mom walks in and says, “Did you throw everything into your closet?” You deny it and say, “Uhh no!, no!!! I didn’t I swear! You’re trying so hard to ignore it because you know it’s true! In the same way Paul is saying this is what has led people off the tracks, they knew the truth about God but they have ignored it so strongly they began to believe something else. He continues

For although they knew God, they neither glorified him as God nor gave thanks to him, but their thinking became futile and their foolish hearts were darkened. Although they claimed to be wise, they became fools and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images made to look like a mortal human being and birds and animals and reptiles.

This is the first of three exchanges that they make. They gave up seeing God as the most important thing in their lives and chose to worship other things. This is called idolatry. It’s where we get the word idol. An idol is anything we make more important than God. When we make anything else more important than God it becomes an idol. Paul is saying that they gave up worshipping God and seeing him as the most important thing in their lives. What did they make more important? images of humans, birds, animals and reptiles. What happened after they worshipped other things?

Therefore God gave them over in the sinful desires of their hearts to sexual impurity for the degrading of their bodies with one another. They exchanged the truth about God for a lie, and worshiped and served created things rather than the Creator—who is forever praised. Amen.

Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural sexual relations for unnatural ones. In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed shameful acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their error.

God loves us too much to force us to love him. I mean that’s not really love anyway is it? How loved do you feel when someone is forced to give you a hug to make up for arguing or fighting? Doesn’t feel like love does it? God doesn’t force us, that’s why it say God gave them over. He’s allowing them. They are exchanging the way God created them to live for a lifestyle that is completely different. And to make sure we don’t only focus on these sins Paul goes on to give us a list of others forms that sin can take. He provides many ways our life can go off track.

Furthermore, just as they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, so God gave them over to a depraved mind, so that they do what ought not to be done. They have become filled with every kind of wickedness, evil, greed and depravity. They are full of envy, murder, strife, deceit and malice. They are gossips, slanderers, God-haters, insolent, arrogant and boastful; they invent ways of doing evil; they disobey their parents; they have no understanding, no fidelity, no love, no mercy.

Wow, this is a huge list of consequences Paul gives us as we try to live outside of they way God has created us to live. As we try to live life off the tracks. Then he goes on to wrap up this section by saying this:

Although they know God’s righteous decree that those who do such things deserve death, they not only continue to do these very things but also approve of those who practice them.

What happens when a real train goes off the tracks?

The consequences are a lot greater aren’t they? The same is true with our lives. Many people have destroyed relationships, became depressed, anxious, suicidal and hurt others because they were trying to live their lives off the tracks.

The Deadly Montana Derailment. On September 26, 2021, passengers boarded the Amtrak train service from Chicago to Seattle when an unfortunate incident occurred at around 4 pm local time, causing injuries and loss of lives. A few of the passenger carriages derailed from the tracks near the small town of Joplin, Montana.

The derailment resulted in carriages tipping over on their sides, causing serious injuries to passengers inside the train. As media and authorities arrived to carry out rescue operations, they saw some carriages on their side with luggage thrown around. At the same time, those who did not suffer any injuries were trying their best to help those in trouble.

The train had a total of 144 passengers and 16 crew members. The Montana derailment killed three people and injured over a dozen passengers. Some passengers could save themselves from injuries by holding onto coffee tables and seats as the train derailed. But those sleeping on the train did not have enough time to secure themselves, resulting in injuries from the tip-over. The passengers explained that the accident felt like extreme turbulence on a plane.

The first responders started to help out the injured passengers, and the U.S. National Transportation Safety Board announced an investigation into the deadly Montana derailment.

How do we stay on track?

The first thing we need to do is take inventory on our lives. Are we guilty of sin? Are we making something in our life more important than God?

“Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms. Laying down your arms, surrendering, saying you are sorry. realizing that you have been on the wrong track and getting ready to start life over again from the ground floor-that is the only way out of a “hole.” This process of surrender-this movement full speed astern-is repentance.” C.S. Lewis

Make God the most important thing in our lives.

Read the Bible

Statistics about people who read the bible 4 times a week.

d

Should the Landing be the Montana Derailment?