The One About Sin

Welcome and Story

So let’s begin today by reading Lamentations 2, WHAT?? WE’RE READING LAMENTATIONS IN A SERMON ABOUT LAMENTATIONS. Groundbreaking I know.

But we’ll be in Lamentations 2, reading the first 11 verses.

“1 How the Lord has covered the Daughter of Zion with the cloud of his anger! He has hurled down the splendor of Israel from heaven to earth; he has not remembered his footstool in the day of his anger. 2 Without pity the Lord has swallowed up all the dwellings of Jacob; in his wrath he has torn down the strongholds of the Daughter of Judah. He has brought her kingdom and its princes down to the ground in dishonor. 3 In fierce anger he has cut off every horn of Israel. He has withdrawn his right hand at the approach of the enemy. He has burned in Jacob like a flaming fire that consumes everything around it. 4 Like an enemy he has strung his bow; his right hand is ready. Like a foe he has slain all who were pleasing to the eye; he has poured out his wrath like fire on the tent of the Daughter of Zion. 5 The Lord is like an enemy; he has swallowed up Israel. He has swallowed up all her palaces and destroyed her strongholds. He has multiplied mourning and lamentation for the Daughter of Judah. 6 He has laid waste his dwelling like a garden; he has destroyed his place of meeting. The LORD has made Zion forget her appointed feasts and her Sabbaths; in his fierce anger he has spurned both king and priest. 7 The Lord has rejected his altar and abandoned his sanctuary. He has handed over to the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed feast. 8 The LORD determined to tear down the wall around the Daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not withhold his hand from destroying. He made ramparts and walls lament; together they wasted away. 9 Her gates have sunk into the ground; their bars he has broken and destroyed. Her king and her princes are exiled among the nations, the law is no more, and her prophets no longer find visions from the LORD. 10 The elders of the Daughter of Zion sit on the ground in silence; they have sprinkled dust on their heads and put on sackcloth. The young women of Jerusalem have bowed their heads to the ground. 11 My eyes fail from weeping, I am in torment within, my heart is poured out on the ground because my people are destroyed, because children and infants faint in the streets of the city.”

So in the first chapter, we see Jeremiah weeping over the fact that the people are gone from the City. The heading of my Bible in chapter one says “How Lonely Sits the City.” In this chapter, however, we see Jeremiah showing us that GOD is the one who allowed the destruction of Jerusalem and the exile of the Israelites.

This wasn’t some freak event. It was something that was allowed BY God because of Israel’s lack of obedience. Now you may be sitting here and thinking… Wow. God this is harsh. Let up on Israel. But if we check back at the end of chapter one, in verse 22, we see something interesting… Verse 22 of chapter 1, Jeremiah says “Let all their wickedness come before you; deal with them as you have dealt with me because of all my sins. My groans are many and my heart is faint.” Jeremiah is saying that God has faced rebellion from Israel, that because of Israel’s sin, all of this is happening. They rebelled and now they’re getting their just deserts. This is the punishment because of their sin. And we see that this is the same stuff we struggle with. That sin isn’t new. But we also see that sin can, and usually does, lead us to terrible results.

The problem with sin is; God is just and sin goes against everything God holds as truth. Therefore sin must be dealt with. Sin can’t just be glossed over. It has to be dealt with. If we let sin go uncheck, as we’ll talk about, it will cause TERRIBLE consequences. Israel let sin continue in their lives and we get what we see here in Lamentations 2. Captivity and the destruction of their city Jerusalem. If we look back in Genesis we see humans had become so wicked that God had to send a flood to wipe them all out! In the same way in Genesis 19 we read of Sodom and Gomorrah whose inhabitants was partaking in so much sin, we see specifically multiple forms of sexual immorality that eventually, as verses 24 and 25 says, “the Lord rained down burning sulfur on Sodom and Gomorrah—from the Lord out of the heavens. 25 Thus he overthrew those cities and the entire plain, destroying all those living in the cities—and also the vegetation in the land.”

And as we dive into this, let’s first answer the question… What is sin? I have three ways we can define sin.

Well, if you have been in the church for any number of days you have heard this term. Sin. It gets tossed around a lot. Right but what exactly is sin? As I said earlier, sin is anything ANYTHING that goes against who or what God is. We saw in Romans some sin, but we can go to Galatians to get an extensive list of what sin is and what sin isn’t.

Galatians 5:19-23 says this: “The acts of the flesh are obvious: sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like. I warn you, as I did before, that those who live like this will not inherit the kingdom of God. But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, forbearance, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control. Against such things there is no law.”

So we see that this is sin and we see what isn’t sin. It’s a nice compare and contrast, right. What is sin, what isn’t sin. But what is the literal definition of sin? Well… I love doing this, but according to Webster’s dictionary, the definition of Sin is “immoral act considered to be a transgression against divine law.”

Anything that goes against what Jesus said. Anything against his law. Now I want to look at sin differently… A little bit. As I went about preparing for this sermon I thought of how we can make sin something we can more easily understand, something that we can all relate to. Sometimes the word sin can be overused and lose its power. We just go oh yeah, sin, that makes sense, but I want us to think of sin in a different light here today, and the first way I want to think of Sin as brokenness. Sin Is Brokenness

1: We live in a broken world. Since the beginning, since Adam and Eve first sinned, our world has been broken. God had a meaning and purpose for this world and humans went and messed it up. The world, that was once perfect, is now flawed and therefore, we’re flawed. We were once perfect, but now, we’re flawed. Jeremiah, coincidentally, wrote this imagery and I just love it. Jeremiah 18:1-12says this.

“1 This is the word that came to Jeremiah from the Lord: 2 “Go down to the potter’s house, and there I will give you my message.” 3 So I went down to the potter’s house, and I saw him working at the wheel. 4 But the pot he was shaping from the clay was marred in his hands; so the potter formed it into another pot, shaping it as seemed best to him.5 Then the word of the Lord came to me. 6 He said, “Can I not do with you, Israel, as this potter does?” declares the Lord. “Like clay in the hand of the potter, so are you in my hand, Israel. 7 If at any time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be uprooted, torn down and destroyed, 8 and if that nation I warned repents of its evil, then I will relent and not inflict on it the disaster I had planned. 9 And if at another time I announce that a nation or kingdom is to be built up and planted, 10 and if it does evil in my sight and does not obey me, then I will reconsider the good I had intended to do for it. 11 “Now therefore say to the people of Judah and those living in Jerusalem, ‘This is what the Lord says: Look! I am preparing a disaster for you and devising a plan against you. So turn from your evil ways, each one of you, and reform your ways and your actions.’ 12 But they will reply, ‘It’s no use. We will continue with our own plans; we will all follow the stubbornness of our evil hearts.’ ”

God is our potter. He had formed us into perfect pots, plates, bowls, whatever you want to be called. He formed us into that. But sin has chipped us, has cracked us. Turned us into imperfect clay jars. Sin is a chip, a scrape, a blemish on an otherwise beautiful jar. Sin comes to us from the brokenness in this world.

Now some of you may be thinking that this means our brokenness, or scraping, our chip, isn’t our fault. We were hurt by an outside source. And I am not saying that at all, but what I am saying is that not all of our sin is on purpose. I know many times I can unwillingly sin then realize what I have just done then have to ask for forgiveness. I’m also not saying we don’t take ownership of that sin. We need to own our sin to be able to seek repentance. Sin is a Disease

2: Now along those same lines, sin can also be seen as a disease. Something we’re born with. Psalms 51:5 says “Surely I was sinful at birth, sinful from the time my mother conceived me.” Sin is something that we, on our own, can’t realize is going to, as all diseases do, kill us; and if gone unchecked, it will.

This may be a funny example, but I am double jointed. I was born double jointed and my sisters were both born that way too, so I didn’t think anything of it, but one time I did it in front of my friends, I just leaned my hands on the table and they freaked out. They were like OH MY GOSH. THAT IS DISGUSTING. HOW DO YOU DO THAT?? And it was something I didn’t know was different!

That is how some people are with sin! They have lived with it all their lives, they don’t realize that it is wrong. They don’t realize it’s not something that isn’t good for them. Now, my double jointedness isn’t something that will kill me, but sin is and it’s something that needs to be changed. James 1 says. “But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.”

Just like most diseases if not controlled can lead to death, and if left unchecked, it will. Now, again, calling sin a disease can lead to people feeling like they don’t hold any responsibility for their sin. It can make sin into something that is inflicted on us and for which we have no responsibility. But this is just to show that sin is something that we all struggle with for the rest of our lives.

3. And finally. Sin is an Addiction. Sin is something that when we get in too deep, it can be hard to get out of.

I’m sure we have all experienced an addiction to something at some point, whether it’s drugs, alcohol, smoking, food, tv, video games, we’ve all experienced something that when we like it or love it, we dive head first into it and it’s hard to say no to it. Let’s take this example and run with a drug addict as an example.

The addict is compelled to keep using his drug of choice, even though he probably knows it is objectively wrong and is well aware that his continued use is bringing down dire consequences upon himself and others. The only way he is going to be freed is through outside intervention, which can usually only take place when he reaches “rock bottom” and admits his own powerlessness to save himself.

This is what sin does to us, as well. I’ve had my sins where, even though I knew it was wrong and would kill me, I still did. I still partook in the sins that will eventually kill me. I was stuck. And I think we can all relate. There are just those little lies that don't seem too harmless or those pictures that technically aren’t wrong because they’re on instagram, but we still lust after, or those youtube videos that get us sucked in and cause us to waste toooooo much time on there.

We all have those sins in our lives that we’re addicted to, even though we know that they’re wrong. So now that we have these three metaphors for what sin is, let's dive into what exactly sin does to our lives and how they affect it.

Sin is undoubtedly going to kill us all; we talked about that. It’s something that will put an end to this life. Jesus says in John 10 say the enemy comes to steal, kill, and destroy. And destroy is the first of three ways that sin affects our lives.

I love to use the dictionary to define words when I’m speaking just because I think it helps me and you guys be on the same page, so… The dictionary definition of destroy is to put an end to the existence of (something) by damaging or attacking it. Sin will destroy us. There is no question. When we let the disease or addiction of sin fester in our lives, it will become fat and disgusting. It can become a growth in our life that will overtake our lives until it destroys us. Sin Destroys

I think it’s important to note that this ALWAYS happens. We see in Lamentations that this unchecked sin in Israel’s life resulted in absolute destruction of Jerusalem. Completely. Lamentations 2:7-9 “7 The Lord has rejected his altar and abandoned his sanctuary. He has handed over to the enemy the walls of her palaces; they have raised a shout in the house of the LORD as on the day of an appointed feast. 8 The LORD determined to tear down the wall around the Daughter of Zion. He stretched out a measuring line and did not withhold his hand from destroying. He made ramparts and walls lament; together they wasted away. 9 Her gates have sunk into the ground; their bars he has broken and destroyed.” Sin will destroy us whether right here and now on earth or in the future, if we continue to let it go unchecked. We see PLENTY of stories of pastors who have been torn down from their positions because they had unchecked sin in their lives that they let continue to grow and take a hold of them and eventually, it controlled them more than God did. PASTORS! And not just any pastors, pastors of churches with membership in the thousands!

The one that springs to mind is Carl Lentz of HillsongNYC, who, after 10 years at Hillsong was ultimately let go due to marital unfaithfulness. Another one is Mark Driscoll of Mars Hill Church who was accused by an elder of being “ "domineering, verbally violent, arrogant, and quick-tempered." These are sins and they destroyed his ministry and Mars Hill Church. Any good that Carl Lentz, Mark Driscoll, or any other number of pastors who have let sin go unchecked need to take a cue from Israel… if we let sin go unchecked, it will destroy.

I also want to pull in a biblical example, that of Ananias and Sapphira. In Acts chapter 4 we see that the church was sharing all they had. If someone was in need, the members of the church would sell a possession and give the money so that they could help the needy church members. In verses Acts 4:36-37 of chapter 4 we read “Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means “son of encouragement”), 37 sold a field he owned and brought the money and put it at the apostles’ feet.” GREAT, right?

Well, let’s turn the page to chapter 5. It starts off great! Now a man named Ananias, together with his wife Sapphira, also sold a piece of property AWESOME! Everyone is getting into the act! We love it! Let’s go… Verse 2… 2 With his wife’s full knowledge he kept back part of the money for himself, but brought the rest and put it at the apostles’ feet. Uh oh… Well, maybe it all goes okay, let’s keep reading. “3 Then Peter said, “Ananias, how is it that Satan has so filled your heart that you have lied to the Holy Spirit and have kept for yourself some of the money you received for the land? 4 Didn’t it belong to you before it was sold? And after it was sold, wasn’t the money at your disposal? What made you think of doing such a thing? You have not lied just to human beings but to God.” 5 When Ananias heard this, he fell down and died. And great fear seized all who heard what had happened. 6 Then some young men came forward, wrapped up his body, and carried him out and buried him.” Oh good heavens. Ananias DIED???? Jeez, harsh. Yeah and if you keep reading you find out his wife, Sapphira also died because she knew that he had kept some money and didn’t say anything against him.

This is what sin does. It destroys. It also divides. Sin Divides Definition: separate or be separated into parts or disagree or cause to disagree. This is what sin does. It divides our loyalties. Matthew 6:24 has this to say. 24 “No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money. We can’t be divide in our loyalties when trying to serve God. You either love God or love earthly things, in this case, money. And the love of money is just another sin. Right?

Sin will cause us to do things that are otherwise not in our nature, it will divide friendships, families, countries! I think of Saul, Jonah, right. He had a sin in his life he let go unchecked, he was bitter and angry towards Ninevah. He did not want to see Nineveh get saved. So when God told him what to do, what did he do? Not what God said right? Jonah 1:3 “But Jonah ran away from the Lord and headed for Tarshish. He went down to Joppa, where he found a ship bound for that port. After paying the fare, he went aboard and sailed for Tarshish to flee from the Lord.” Jonah, a prophet, had sin his life that he left unchecked, and it divided him. Jonah wanted to do what the Lord said… Except go to Ninevah and preach to the Ninevites.

Jonah is mad that God would even think of giving grace to the Ninevites, and yet, God gives Jonah grace in the end. He lets him get second chances. But Jonah doesn’t want them to get a second chance. Jonah is divided between wanting the grace that God gives but not giving it to others.

In our lives; how often do we do this. We get forgiveness but don’t want to give it to that person who said something outta line. We want the patience that God gives, but don’t show it to that person who is constantly annoying. We want the love God shows, but isn’t loving to even our own family. We are constantly divided, and that is because we have unchecked sin in our lives. And it will continue to divide until we get it taken care of. And I’ll tell you how to get the sin taken care of in just a moment, but we have to talk about this last way sin affects our lives;

Sin devastates. The definition of devastates is Devastate: to cause severe and overwhelming shock or grief.

If we look at Lamentations we see the sin of ISrael, it devastated Israel. Israel is now in RUINS because of Israel’s lack of love for God! Because of their lack of obedience to God! It devastates. Israel is now in captivity!

The destruction of Israel was devastating. The captivity was devastating. Sin is devastating, but it not only devastated those who are stuck in sin, but also those who see and can’t help.

It devastated Jeremiah! We read here that he is LAMENTING the definition of that is mourning or grieving over something, especially death or profound loss or suffering. As an older brother I know I’ve felt this. I’ve seen my siblings struggle with the same sins that I have struggled with and I just want them to snap out of it. I want to go up to them and just yell at them DON”T MAKE THIS MISTAKE., I DID IT, IT’S NOT WORTH IT. STOP IT!!!!! CHANGE!

And then I sit there and think… My parents probably felt that same way when I was a teenager. Hopeless to do anything but give advice and cry out to God on their behalf. That’s all we can do when we’re devastated by someone elses sin. And I’m sure those of you who ARE parents have felt that same thing! That is what Jeremiah is doing here… And that is what we all should do. For our family, our friends, our country, our world.

When we see sin… We should cry out for repentance… Whether it’s our sin or someone else’s it should bring us to weeping. Jeremiah saw the sin in Israel and what it has caused and he’s heartbroken because of it. Jeremiah has the heart for his world that, when I read this, I think every follower of Jesus should have at the world around us.

We look at this world that we live in and we should be devastated at the state of it. The wars that are happening both overseas and those that are happening in our own country. The war of racism, the war against abortion, the war against gun violence, and our hearts should break at the violence we are partaking in. We should look at the sin in the world that is being condoned or even celebrated. From legalized murder and calling health care to the celebration of homosexuality. From tv shows and movies containing sexually explicit images winning awards at major ceremonies to you name it. Sin after sin being paraded and condoned as something we should accept or even partake in. All this should make our hearts break and our guts want to throw up.

We should feel as Jeremiah does in this chapter. We should cry out for the devastation that sin is causing this world. This is where our nation is headed if we don’t change course. It’s heading for destruction and that should cause us to lament. We should weep for America and the world.

So, what can we do about this? What do we change? What can we do to about this destructive, divisive, devastating sin in our lives?

First, we have to Repent. Repentance is the FIRST and most important step in becoming free of sin. And if you’re a follower of Jesus and you’re checking out now because you think you’re okay… Don’t. Stop it. Listen up. Because this stuff is important. Repentance is not a one time thing. We have to do it everytime we sin. And we will sin, because we’re human.

Repentance is seeing sin in your life, realizing it’s WRONG, and turning away from that sin. That is the first step… Seeing that it is wrong and that God can’t allow sin to continue in the life of someone who wants to follow him. If you really want to follow him, sin has to be ripped out of your life. If you don’t want to follow God, continue sinning by all means, just know you’re going to be in a world of hurt if you chase after that lifestyle. Romans 1:18-25 says - “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who by their unrighteousness suppress the truth. 19 For what can be known about God is plain to them, because God has shown it to them. 20 For his invisible attributes, namely, his eternal power and divine nature, have been clearly perceived, ever since the creation of the world,[g] in the things that have been made. So they are without excuse. 21 For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened. 22 Claiming to be wise, they became fools, 23 and exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man and birds and animals and creeping things. 24 Therefore God gave them up in the lusts of their hearts to impurity, to the dishonoring of their bodies among themselves, 25 because they exchanged the truth about God for a lie and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever! Amen.”

Asking for forgiveness and doing, as we talked about in Sunday night church, radical surgery in your life. Removing it from our lives and saying, God I know I was wrong and change it. Repentance and asking forgiveness are two different things. Asking forgiveness doesn’t put any wrong on yourself. Forgiveness is just a “whoopsies. I’m sorry.” Where in repentance you’re saying “God I was wrong to do this sin in my life. I ask forgiveness, can you forgive me. Help me not to do it again.” There is a difference there. And that is what repentance is. We have to repent. And after that, we can begin rejecting sin that comes up.

The Bible says we have to Reject temptation. James 1:12 says 12 Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him. We have to be willing to reject the sin when it comes back up in our lives.

I was terrible at this growing up. I had zero self-control and the devil knew it. He would always attack me with temptation when it had been a long day, or when I didn't get enough sleep or when I was running low on my quiet time with God. So what did I learn? When I am tired is when I need to be around people the most. At the end of a long day what do I need? Not video games but quiet time with God. When I was weak, I had to find God. I’ve gotten so much better at that now than when I was in college, but that doesn’t mean that the devil still doesn’t attack me, I just have a better defense against it because I’m with God more. The devil knows when you’re the weakest, so learn to lean on God when those times spring up.

We have to Reject that temptation.

And this will all lead to a Renewed mind. When we continue to reject the temptation that shows itself and if we fail, seek to repent instantly, this will lead us to a renewed life. God wants to renew us, but he can’t if we continue to go back to our sin. As Provers 26 says “As a dog returns to its vomit, so a fool repeats his folly.”

Billy Graham said “Let the Word of God fill you and renew your mind every day. When our minds are on Christ, Satan has little room to maneuver.” To be renewed, we must be in the word. We have to know who God is.There is no way we can know who God is without spending time with him. The students are probably sick of me saying this, but it’s true. You don’t spend time with a friend just 10 minutes a day. You get to know them over a cup of coffee and talking for three houses, or phone calls for a couple hours. When I was getting to know Clara when we first started dating, we’d stay up till 2 or 3 talking on facetime. I’m not condoning this, but that is how we got to know each other! You have to spend time with God to renew your mind, and soon, the devil will not have such a hold over you with your sin.

So what are we going to do? Are we going to let sin control our lives? To continue to bring destruction, division, and devastation or are we going to reject and repent and bring renewal through the word? Israel chose the first one and it lead to 70 years in Babylonian exile. So what are we going to choose?

If you call yourself a follow of Christ and have unchecked sin in your life, check yourself. Ask God to come in an expose this sin so you can repent from it. Do it today.

If you are living with sin in your life and you want to choose renewal and repentance, let me tell you life in freedom through Christ is like no other. I’ll pray in a moment and, if you want to make that decision you can pray along, but it has to be YOUR choice in YOUR heart, my words are magical, it’s your heart attitude that matters.

God, I admit that I am a sinner. That I have partook in things that are contrary to your word. God I ask that you make these sins evident in my life, that I repent of my sins and I pray that you would reclaim the ground I have given to the enemy though this sin. I want this renewed life that you give. God, I pray all this in your son's name. Amen.

If you prayed that, come talk to me or pastor Curtis, we’d love to help you get started in this new life. Now a benediction from the Lord __________ You are dismissed. Go in peace.