Ideas Have Consequences
Sermon • Submitted
0 ratings
· 21 viewsNotes
Transcript
May people think the world is controlled by generals, politicians, and executives.
They are wrong!
Our world revolves around ideas.
Military's have power but the are beholden to the ideas on which their nation was founded.
Politicians may think they rule the world, but they are held captive by their ideas about government.
Executives may think they have the world by the tail, but they too are indebted to ideas.
Behind every historical event or social policy lies an idea.
Ideas are the guiding force behind every twist and turn in public opinion
Ideas determine what we accept or reject in art, media, business, medicine, government, church and family.
We will never fully understand what is going on around us unless we understand the ideas which form the root structures of the world.
32 of the sons of Issachar who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do, their chiefs were two hundred; and all their brethren were at their command;
Everyone has a “worldview,” a way of interpreting everything that happens in the world.
The Bible has an explanation but so does....
Secular Humanism
Socialism, and
Cosmic Humanism.
A persons worldview will dictate, whether consciously or unconsciously, how they interpret and respond to the world around them.
Worldviews are founded on ideas.
If you understand the basic worldview, you’ll understand how issues fall into place.
Where once you saw thousands of confusing issues, you’l now see the big picture.
We want to see ideas from a Biblical perspective....
We want to learn to think God’s thoughts after him.
A war of ideas is raging all around us.
What we call issues are symptoms, not the disease.
The disease is rebellion against God!
23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
In other words: Ideas have consequences.
The fact is, our world is reaping the consequences of rebellion against God.
1 Chron 12:32 tells the story of one small tribe in Israel which was chosen to lead because it “understood the times, and knew what Israel ought to do.”
Shouldn’t we be the ones who understand the times and know what our country ought to do?
Roots go all the way back to Genesis...
The first family was dysfunctional....
Cain = Aquire
1 Now Adam knew Eve his wife, and she conceived and bore Cain, and said, “I have acquired a man from the Lord.”
2 Then she bore again, this time his brother Abel. Now Abel was a keeper of sheep, but Cain was a tiller of the ground.
A farmer is settled
A shepherd is nomadic.
The seeds of conflict are there...
Whose land is it anyway?
This question has many dimensions:
economic
political
religious
social
personal aspects of ownership and property and progress and wealth...
The story of the first two sons is actually a story about progress, innovation, and the inevitable forward movement of human civilization.
Strife.... murder.
3 And in the process of time it came to pass that Cain brought an offering of the fruit of the ground to the Lord.
4 Abel also brought of the firstborn of his flock and of their fat. And the Lord respected Abel and his offering,
5 but He did not respect Cain and his offering. And Cain was very angry, and his countenance fell.
But the Lord is kind:
6 So the Lord said to Cain, “Why are you angry? And why has your countenance fallen?
7 If you do well, will you not be accepted? And if you do not do well, sin lies at the door. And its desire is for you, but you should rule over it.”
But Cain doesn’t talk to God. Not one response.
Cain talks to Able - in a deceptive way.
8 Now Cain talked with Abel his brother; and it came to pass, when they were in the field, that Cain rose up against Abel his brother and killed him.
Now the Lord has another question for Cain. Finally Cain begins to answer God’s questions.
9 Then the Lord said to Cain, “Where is Abel your brother?” He said, “I do not know. Am I my brother’s keeper?”
God has another question:
10 And He said, “What have you done? The voice of your brother’s blood cries out to Me from the ground.
11 So now you are cursed from the earth, which has opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand.
Cain is only the third to be cursed of God
Serpent (3:14)
Ground (3:17)
12 When you till the ground, it shall no longer yield its strength to you. A fugitive and a vagabond you shall be on the earth.”
13 And Cain said to the Lord, “My punishment is greater than I can bear!
14 Surely You have driven me out this day from the face of the ground; I shall be hidden from Your face; I shall be a fugitive and a vagabond on the earth, and it will happen that anyone who finds me will kill me.”
Sadly, Cain expressed his distress only at the punishment he received, not at the crime he committed.
Nor was there any note of repentance concerning his dreadful action.
15 And the Lord said to him, “Therefore, whoever kills Cain, vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold.” And the Lord set a mark on Cain, lest anyone finding him should kill him.
A pattern develops....
16 Then Cain went out from the presence of the Lord and dwelt in the land of Nod on the east of Eden.
Eden is a paradise
Everything is right there.
A realm of God’s favor and rest....
And Cain is not there. He is East of there.
Not only is he East of there but the next verse tells us he is building a city.
He’s settling there....
Putting down roots....
The land of Nod=Wandering
The writer of Genesis keeps returning to this eastward metaphor,
Insisting that there is something that has gone terribly wrong with humanity,
From the very beginning humans are moving in the wrong direction.
God asks Adam, “Where are you?”
And the answer is, of course, “East.”
East of where he’s supposed to be.
East of how things are meant to be.
Makes you wonder if someone is plotting something.
But really what could they do next that is worse than what we are already doing to ourselves.