The Cause of Our Sin
Notes
Transcript
Good morning
Todays topic
The cause of our sin
We are also going to go over the Gospel
Take Communion today
Without further a do
Prayer
Have you ever watched two children play
Now have you ever watched those same two
Bust out into a fight?
At first they are getting along
Suddenly one of them has something the other doesn’t.
WWIII has now commenced.
But what about when we get to adult hood.
You know as ridiculous as this sounds,
Real house wives of any city
Great example.
How about that guy or girl
Always sizing everyone up
Always trying to one up everyone
Make everyone else feel inferior
Like he is trying to gain something on others
Many times these can end in a fight
Why do we do this?
What about on a larger scale
National scale
One nation sees something that would benefit them
The other country is unwilling to share
War commences
Usually thousands die for one mans selfish desire
The love of the world
Compared to our love for God
One of the most convicting and important topics anyone can speak on
What is the cause of our sin
I would argue
Our desire for stuff
When we should be focused on God
More importantly
Pride vs humility
Hard topic today
Open your Bibles to James 4:1-6
What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.
You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God. Do you think the Scriptures have no meaning? They say that God is passionate that the spirit he has placed within us should be faithful to him. And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”
Quick review
We talked last week of community
We’ve talked about that allot
Remember I told you that our words affect everyone around us
I also taught on how we ought to treat one another
And we also taught
How this is all motivated and comes from a
level of maturity in Christ
But now we are getting into the root cause
Individualism or selfishness or what the Bible calls
Pride.
Our own desire towards self vs community
How many of you have heard the statement
“I must learn to love myself before I can love others”
What if I told you the
Bible teaches otherwise
I know I’m stirring the pot right now
Cognitive dissonance
But remember what I said last week
I have to teach what the Bible teaches
I have to be careful with what I preach
I have to understand and anticipate how you are going to react
I know this statement
That this concept I am about to teach is foreign
But
Everything in the Bible
Everything in the word of God
Everything taught to us by Jesus
In the law of Moses
All of it
Bent on community
Look with me real quick at a couple passages.
Turn real quick to
1 Corinthians 12
spiritual gifting
God gives us super natural abilities
To do what ?!?!?!
Help each other!
Look what the Bible says
“A spiritual gift is given to each of us so we can help each other.”
1 Corinthians 12:7 NLT
What about rules for community?
Look what it says in Colossians 3:12-14
“Since God chose you to be the holy people he loves, you must clothe yourselves with tenderhearted mercy, kindness, humility, gentleness, and patience. Make allowance for each other’s faults, and forgive anyone who offends you. Remember, the Lord forgave you, so you must forgive others. Above all, clothe yourselves with love, which binds us all together in perfect harmony.”
You know as a chaplain
I get to see you guys
In good and bad times
I truly enjoy my job
I love each one of you
But I also get to see you guys at your worst
I would argue
When I see you guys on bad terms
When I see you because you’re frustrated
Angry
Pissed off
Irritated
Ready to kill someone
It’s because of exactly what James is referring to here
I’ll give you an example
I’ve heard multiple times
I’m angry because they aren’t doing things how I want them
They aren't doing it the way I like it
I can’t stand it when don’t think of me
What about my emotions
What about my needs
All the time soldiers walk into my office
Angry and frustrated
Because they aren’t getting what they want
This is exactly what James is talking about
Cut and dry
very clear
Keep in mind
This is the Word of God
Not the Word of the Chaplain
The Word of God
Don’t get me wrong
I love helping you guys
I love talking to you
But at the same time
I see the pain you go through
I feel if we would just focus on loving others
A great deal of that pain would leave
You know studies have shown
The happiest people on earth
Are those people that serve others
With no expectations of anything in return
True servants
What about in a marriage
Most divorces are caused because of
failed communication
They aren’t satisfying me
What about my needs
What about what I need
Yet what is James saying here?
James 4:1-3
“What is causing the quarrels and fights among you? Don’t they come from the evil desires at war within you? You want what you don’t have, so you scheme and kill to get it. You are jealous of what others have, but you can’t get it, so you fight and wage war to take it away from them. Yet you don’t have what you want because you don’t ask God for it. And even when you ask, you don’t get it because your motives are all wrong—you want only what will give you pleasure.”
You only want what gives you pleasure!
Isn’t that the truth!
How many of us could actually disagree with that statement
It literally defines each and everyone of us!
Don’t you dare look at me as if I was innocent either
I’m just as guilty if not more
But what does James say about this type of behavior?
It’s evil
It’s opposite of God
It’s opposite of Christian behavior
It’s opposite of what we should be as followers of our Lord and Savior
Lord and Savior
ask yourself
What does that truly mean
Lord,
he’s your king
your master,
your boss,
your high priest,
your commander,
your CSM
I mean think about it,
you wouldn’t dare disobey ma’am or CSM
but
The one who holds the keys to your eternity
The one who decides whether you are cast in to hell
The one who will judge every thought every motive
You’ll willing disobey without a thought.
He is your Lord and Savior
If we are his
We ought to live a life pleasing to him
The world should not be our go to
The world should not be our answer to everything
We need to turn to God in everything!
Look what it says in verse 4
You adulterers! Don’t you realize that friendship with the world makes you an enemy of God? I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
Look at the animosity
The anger
The separation
James is calling people like this
Enemies of God
Adulterers
These are some pretty powerful adjectives
Enemies of God?
We’ve been talking about this for the past four weeks
You cannot claim to be a Christian and live the way of the world
You cannot claim to be a Christian and have no relationship with God
You cannot claim to be a Christian and treat others with disrespect
You cannot claim to be a Christian and lose control of your tongue all the time
You cannot claim to be a Christian and live a life of selfish desires that lead you away from the cross
That is a massively powerful statement
Look with me at the second half
James 4:4 (NLT)
Adulterers and adulteresses! Do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God? Whoever therefore wants to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.
I say it again: If you want to be a friend of the world, you make yourself an enemy of God.
James is drawing a line in the sand
You want the world then take it
You want God then take it
Quit messing around
Make a decision
Make a choice
Look at the bold statement in Verse 5
I like how the NKJV puts it here
Or do you think that the Scripture says in vain, “The Spirit who dwells in us yearns jealously”?
Raise your hand if you’ve ever been jealous
Is it a good emotion?
Make you feel all warm and fuzzy inside?
Make you feel comfortable?
or does it make you angry
Frustrated
infuriated
I don’t know about you but the very last thing i want to do
Is to infuriate God
The Bible says in Hebrews
It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God.
I know I know
You’re probably saying
Dang Chaplain
Where is the good news?
Ok so now that I have scared you enough
Lets ask what do we do about it
How do we meet the standard?
Because apparently the very reason we fight
the very reason we wage war
the very reason we are enemies of God
is because we desire this world over God
But look with me at Verse 6
And he gives grace generously. As the Scriptures say,
“God opposes the proud
but gives grace to the humble.”
Gives grace to the humble
He gives grace to those that build community
to those that love others
to those that care for their families
to those that build people up
to those that are willing to sacrifice for others
To those that are loved by everyone for their devotion to others
This is better stated he gives grace to those that deny themselves
Matthew 16:24
Then Jesus said to His disciples, “If anyone desires to come after Me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow Me.
Take up his cross
that means death to your needs
your wants
your desires
but focus on others
focus on love
focus on Jesus
There is no bad news here!!
Do you get that?!?!
I am giving you the path to the very heart of GOD!!
Say that again
I am giving you the path to the very heart of GOD!!
Look with me at Philippians 3
I want to give you an example of what this looks like
I want you to understand what truth faith is
I don’t want you to walk out of here today saying
I’m screwed
I can never measure up
I want you to see what others saw
To see the beauty
The glory
The freedom in Christ
You know
The world will have you bending over backwards
trying to achieve some level of perfection
some level of certainty
But not Jesus
He says come as you are
Come with your sin
Come with your broken heart
Come with your pain
Come with your frustration
You know Paul Got this
If you know the apostle Paul
Incredible man
Touched by God in a way I can’t even imagine
Look what he says in Philippians
He wrote this in jail by the way
Just to give you a bit of background
Paul was about to be the kingpin
He was moving up the ranks
He was about to be the head honcho
The man in charge
But He gave it up
And he eventually had his head cut off for following Christ
But ask yourself what did he see in Jesus?
Look at verse 7
I once thought these things were valuable, but now I consider them worthless because of what Christ has done. Yes, everything else is worthless when compared with the infinite value of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have discarded everything else, counting it all as garbage, so that I could gain Christ and become one with him. I no longer count on my own righteousness through obeying the law; rather, I become righteous through faith in Christ. For God’s way of making us right with himself depends on faith. I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power that raised him from the dead. I want to suffer with him, sharing in his death, so that one way or another I will experience the resurrection from the dead!
I don’t mean to say that I have already achieved these things or that I have already reached perfection. But I press on to possess that perfection for which Christ Jesus first possessed me. No, dear brothers and sisters, I have not achieved it, but I focus on this one thing: Forgetting the past and looking forward to what lies ahead, I press on to reach the end of the race and receive the heavenly prize for which God, through Christ Jesus, is calling us.
Everything as garbage?
Everything is worthless
I want to know Christ and experience the mighty power
Paul is so in tune with God
Mind blowing
Paul is a man that desperately understands his position before God
He gets it
He fully comprehends
one day he will stand before God the Father and be judged
The only correct answer
Did you have faith in my son for the forgiveness of Sins?
Look the Gospel says
Jesus Christ died on the cross in direct obedience to God the Father
Died for your sin
Died for my sin
Took our punishment
Took all the wrath of God upon Himself
So that you would never have to experience the pain of eternal separation from God
Because of Jesus Christ you can live forever
You can be with God for all eternity
By having faith in the finished work of the cross
By having faith that he rose again from the dead
By knowing that Jesus Christ was God in the flesh
who died for your sin
who forgave your sin
and promised eternal life with him
If you would just believe and accept him as your Lord and Savior
Today we are going to take communion
Everyone is welcome
We are going to read a passage
and I am going to invite you up to take a cracker
dip it in the grape juice and eat
For I received from the Lord that which I also delivered to you: that the Lord Jesus on the same night in which He was betrayed took bread; and when He had given thanks, He broke it and said, “Take, eat; this is My body which is broken for you; do this in remembrance of Me.” In the same manner He also took the cup after supper, saying, “This cup is the new covenant in My blood. This do, as often as you drink it, in remembrance of Me.”
For as often as you eat this bread and drink this cup, you proclaim the Lord’s death till He comes.
As we close out this time together
As we head home this week
Don’t let what you gained here leave you
Focus on Jesus
Focus on eternity
Focus on whats really important