The Problem of Sin

Intro

What defines you? What is it about your life that you place the most weight on? We all do it. We fill our lives with fun things, with silly things, with things we are passionate about and sometimes over the course of a lifetime, our lives become marked by some trait, pursuit, accomplishment, or passion and we don’t even really know it. We look up several years down the road and realize that we’ve let ourselves get to a point in life and we don’t really know how we got there.

My father was a great baseball player, and so was my grandfather. I’ve gone down to Nolensville on occasion be it at a family reunion or we used to go down on the 4th of July for a fireworks show and it wasn’t uncommon for complete strangers to hear my last name and ask. Are you Kelton’s boy? They’d tell me about growing up playing baseball with my dad, with my Pawpaw as their coach and tell me about how my grandfather on occasion would take batting practice and would just be shooting balls over the right field fence with east. Baseball is in my blood. My dad thought he was going to make a living out of playing ball at one point. He had some pro scouts looking at him at one point. But his life took a turn. He was a pitcher and he started having arm troubles and all of a sudden, scouts went away. He got married and needed to start making a living to support my mom and would one day have a family. Never finished college, started working as a collections agent for a bank which means that if you didn’t pay your car payment, my dad was the one who would call you and if you missed enough payments, he would send the repo man… you don’t want to meet that man.

But fast forward many years down the road, my father, without a college degree, starting out as a bank teller, collections agent and so on, would eventually work his way up a very respected position with a bank here in Nashville. He’s done very well for himself and has provided wonderfully for me and my family. But I tell you all of this to say that if you asked my dad at age 21-22 what he was going to do for a living, he would have told you that he was going to play ball. But through various circumstance and life change, he looks up many years down the road and what he sees is totally different.

Now this all worked out very well for my dad. But in the same way if we are not careful, we all will look up, many years down the road, and not recognize the place that we find ourselves. So I’m here and now I’m trying to call your attention back to the here and now. What defines you? Where is your life leading you? What is leading you in life? We all look for meaning and purpose in our lives.

How may of you have seen the movie Rocky? Fewer movies have shaped the way that we tell stories like this one. It is the classic underdog story. But in all of this you see this man, Rocky Balboa, trying to find meaning in his life. Check this out.

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I hope that you could pick out his words through his mumble but hear what he’s saying there at the end. “It don’t matter. I’ve always been a nobody. But I was thinking, it really don’t matter if I lose this fight. It don’t matter if this guy opens up my head. All I want to do is go the distance. Nobody’s ever gone the distance with Creed. And if I can go that distance and that bell rings and I’m still standing. I’ll know for the first time in my life that I wasn’t just another bum from the neighborhood.”

For Rocky all he wanted in life was for himself and for everyone else to know that he wasn’t a bum. You might have similar aspirations to have a successful and meaningful life. But I challenge you here tonight, that if left unchecked, if you continue in this life, just idly floating by, your heart will lead you anywhere but where its intended to find its home.

I’m not much for trying to disguise from you what I’m trying to communicate so purely and simply here is my main point for the night….

Main Point: Our hearts will lead us into destruction, but Jesus gives us a new heart.

The prophet Jeremiah put it like this as he spoke to Israel, God’s people, who were cast out from their homeland and living in exile, he said,

9 The heart is more deceitful than anything else, and incurable—who can understand it?

If you’ve joined us on a Sunday, possibly this past Sunday you’ve heard it said that the Old Testament can kind of be summed up as a constant cycle of Israel, God’s people, falling away and drawing back near. God rescues them miraculously from slavery, from imprisonment, from being exiled from your homeland, and it will spark a frenzy of worship and faithfulness, until God’s people eventually fall away and doubt, or even worship something else.

Conclusion

If you’ve joined us on a Sunday, possibly this past Sunday you’ve heard it said that the Old Testament can kind of be summed up as a constant cycle of Israel, God’s people, falling away and drawing back near. God rescues them miraculously from slavery, from imprisonment, from being exiled from your homeland, and it will spark a frenzy of worship and faithfulness, until God’s people eventually fall away and doubt, or even worship something else.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God - Romans

One of the most famous stories of this in teh Old Testament is the story of the Exodus. You remember that right? God miraculously parts the Red Sea and leads his people out of the very real oppression and slavery of Egypt and leads them into freedom and eventually into this precious promised land.

But it wasn’t soon after that that they turned their affections, their attention, and even their worship to a golden calf. You remember the story? Why is that? It’s because the heart is deceitful above all things.

The heart is deceitful above all things

I do what I do not want to do and what I ought to do I do not do.

And if you are not careful, or really just at any given moment in your life, your heart will reveal this to you. An old theologian named John Calvin once said that the human heart is an idol factory.

He said that because he knew and we all know that our hearts will gravitate to something in this life.

Our hearts are idol factories.

He said that because he knew and we all know that our hearts will gravitate to something in this life.

Behold, The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!

What defines you? What do you place importance on? Playing ball? Being well-liked? What is your idol? Is success your idol? Wanting to have a nice and pleasant life, making a lot of money having 2.5 kids and a white picket fence?

We are talking about this problem of sin in our lives and yes sin can often be willful acts of disobedience against God and His ways, but much more than that it is a natural state that we are all born into. No one has to teach a child to disobey. You tell them don’t stick your finger in that light socket what are they going to do? (Inch closer and closer and enact the motion)

Drop it! Leave it! Turn from it! Leave it behind! Jesus came not that you might improve your life, but he came to give you a NEW life!

We are talking about this problem of sin in our lives and yes sin can often be willful acts of disobedience against God and His ways, but much more than that it is a natural state that we are all born into. No one has to teach a child to disobey. You tell them don’t stick your finger in that light socket what are they going to do? (Inch closer and closer and enact the motion)

And many of you are the same way. Your parents tell you to do something, I know that many of you will look them dead in the eye and in your mind your saying, “you don’t know anything. You don’t know what it’s like to be me. I know what’s best for me, step off.”

I’m not boiling it down to if you just follow your parents then your a good Christian, though it is a biblical mandate to, “honor your father and mother.” Not just a mandate, its one of the big 10 right, the 10 commandments.

But I bring all of this up to say that we all are rebels. Are hearts are rebellious. Our hearts are really awesome at assigning importance to where it doesn’t belong. Our hearts are wonderful idol factories.

Illustration

Anyone in here a big fan of the beach? I absolutely am. Becca is more of an adventure girl. “Let’s go somewhere we’ve never been before,” type of girl. My family has gone to the same beach and same hotel for the past like 15 plus years. We’re creatures of habit.

But if you’ve ever been on the beach you know the colored flag system. Green, good to go. Yellow, still okay. Orange, maybe stay out. Red, absolutely not. And often times its not due to the waves that they wish you to stay out, but its the undercurrent.

When I was young I once found myself out on a rougher day. The waves had gotten bigger and I wanted to go out and play around in them. I waded out deeper into the water and low and behold I found myself to the point where I couldn’t touch the ocean floor anymore and no matter how furiously I paddled and strained the undercurrent kept pushing me out.

I screamed I flailed I waved and eventually an older man swam up beside me and pulled me out of the riptide to where I could gain my footing.

And I say that as a word of caution to you all. Not to toe the line, obey your parents, follow the rules, or you’ll be sorry. But turn your eyes to Jesus, here and now! Don’t just float idly by and one day find yourself swept up in a world of darkness, sin, pain, hurt, destruction, depression.

Because left unchecked you will make a god of something. It might not be another religion, but it might be something like self-sufficiency, pride, wealth, popularity. You may have heard me say that sin is not just doing bad things, but it can also be making good things, ultimate things.

Conclusion

Because left unchecked you will make a god of something. It might not be another religion, but it might be something like self-sufficiency, pride, wealth, popularity. You may have heard me say that sin is not just doing bad things, but it can also be making good things, ultimate things.

Are sports a bad thing, no. But they make a terrible gods. Is a boyfriend or a girlfriend a bad thing, no, but they make terrible gods. Is family a bad thing, no, but it makes a terrible god.

For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God - Romans

Are sports a bad thing, no. But they make a terrible gods. Is a boyfriend or a girlfriend a bad thing, no, but they make terrible gods. Is family a bad thing, no, but it makes a terrible god.

The heart is deceitful above all things

Conclusion

What defines you? If someone were to look at you and say, this is what makes you up. What would they say? Would they say, “He or she is a good hang. A good dude. They’re funny. They’re cool.” Or would they look at you and say, “there’s something different about them. They’re always so happy and even when they’re not they seem to have hope, they seem to still care so much about others. I know they goo to church. I know they are a Christian, could that be it?

I do what I do not want to do and what I ought to do I do not do.

The Apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament said in Romans

Our hearts are idol factories.

The Apostle Paul who wrote most of the New Testament said in Romans

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Behold, The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!

23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Drop it! Leave it! Turn from it! Leave it behind! Jesus came not that you might improve your life, but he came to give you a NEW life!

23 For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

And that is absolutely true but read on...

24 They [meaning all who believe in Jesus] are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that is in Christ Jesus.

So my call to you tonight is just what Jesus called out to Lazarus. You remember the story right? A trusted friend had passed and Jesus waited four days before he visited the tomb. And just like that he screamed, “Lazarus come out.”

And so too does he call out to you here and now, just insert your name there, [Eric! Come out! Becca! Come out!] And just as if you were sleeping He awakens you from certain death into eternal life! So my question to you is do you want that life? Do you want what it is that Jesus came here and died for, to offer you.

I want you close your eyes as we wrap up tonight. And I want you to be real with yourself. If you feel as if you have just been asleep for so long now. You’ve grown cold and calloused to faith in Jesus. You’ve been swept up by the undercurrents of life and you genuinely don’t know how you got here. And you feel like you are without hope... but you hear that call from Jesus to get up! Wake up! Turn away from your way of doing life. Drop it. Leave it! Turn from it! Leave it behind! I want you to raise your hand. Pure and simple.

Jesus came not that you might improve your life, but he came to give you a NEW life! Many of you know that one of my favorite verses in the Bible speaks exactly to that, “If anyone is in Christ they are a new creation. The old has passed away, its dead, gone, left behind…. Behold the new has come.

If you are in need of that new life found in Jesus and Jesus alone… We need to talk. We need to pray.

Maybe you need to follow through in Christ’s obedience to be baptized and proclaim before your church that you are His and His alone. However it is that you need to respond. We are here. Right now. Waiting. Find myself, my wife, or a leader after the service and let’s get this right.

Heavenly Father,

I pray that you would awaken dead souls tonight. Just as you called out to Lazarus, so too do you call out to us, to wake up and follow.

Father in , John the Baptist calls out at the sight of Jesus and says, "behold, The lamb of God who takes away the sins of the world!” And I pray that many in this room would find their ultimate hope in that. And when thinking about what defines their life they would see you clear as day.

Father, send the Spirit now to revive the hearts of many. We are here Lord, your servants are waiting.

If you need to speak with anyone about a relationship with Jesus or baptism, or in need of someone to counsel you, now is that time. But let us all stand and lift our voices in praise.