Canceled (3)
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Culture usually cancels something because it either doesn’t benefit their narrative, offends them, or gets in their way.
I got into a conversation this week about why evil is allowed in the world and I’m not really going to answer that question today because you first have to have an understanding of who God is and How God works before you can begin to unpack the whys of God.
Understand 1:
God is complete
God created everything and everyone and in Him we can be complete. We find that even in this world what we create or make cannot complete us. we may find joy in but, it will never fully fulfill you. God simply is. He is perfect.
Perfection cannot become more perfect or else it wouldn’t be perfect to begin with.
You therefore must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect.
In this verse God perfection makes us perfect. You’re praise doesn’t make God more perfect. You’re obedience Doesn’t make God more perfect. When you seek him it doesn’t benefit God.
This is why I struggle with the idea of other gods. Because if their god’s need something from them are they truly God?
If you didn’t exist God would still be God. If humanity didn’t Exist God would still be God. This sounds depressing. We always need God, but God doesn’t need us, but it isn’t when you understand that
God desires to be with you
God desires you. You desires your relationship. He loves spending time with you. Not because he gets anything from it, just because he enjoys you as a person.
who desires all people to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.
God doesn’t need us but he wants to be with us. What relationship would we want more-one where a person sticks around because they need us to survive or one where a person sticks around because they just desire to be around you.
In stating that we need to understand that everything God does he does to benefit us. Why is there evil in the world-Simply because the presence of evil should push us closer to God. The bible is clear it is through perseverance that our relationship strengthens. Our faith grows.
So repent (change your mind and purpose); turn around and return [to God], that your sins may be erased (blotted out, wiped clean), that times of refreshing (of recovering from the effects of heat, of reviving with fresh air) may come from the presence of the Lord;
God desires to cancel your sins. Not because it benefits Him, but rather because it brings us closer to God and benefits us.
God isn’t canceling something just because he doesn’t like it, but rather he cancels it because we benefit from it. When we come to God and repent of our sins he wipes them clean so that we can grow in his presence.
God doesn’t say sin is bad because he feels like- sin births destruction which is why he gave us a way to cleanse ourselves of it. I don’t think God made a list of rules or us to follow because he wants us to miss out on things, but rather because it frees us to enjoy the right things.
Sex before marriage. If you can remember way back breaking up with someone is ALWAYS harder after you sleep with them than it would have been before. Why? Because sex binds us to a person. The bible says to becomes one and when one leaves it’s a ripping away. Unfortunately residue is still left in the wake to heal from, but the rule isn’t there to stop us, but rather to allow us to enjoy sex without the pain.
Getting drunk. I heard someone talking about how they got so drunk over the 4th that they couldn’t remember half the day. How is that fun? If I do something fun I want to remember it. I want to enjoy it. I want to live my life—not blindly walk through it.
So he made a way out. He cancels or wipes clean our sins. Gives us clean start. There are things in this culture that needs to be canceled, but it isn’t our past. We learn from that. I don’t want to change my past mistakes, I learned from them. I want to change my future mistakes by not making them. By seeing more clearly now than I did before.
What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin that grace may abound?
By no means! How can we who died to sin still live in it?
Should we sin so that we are forgiven more?
I cut my finger a while ago on a table saw. Thankfully I still have my finger, but do I purposefully stick my finger in the saw blade to see if God will protect me from getting it cut off? No-thats stupid, but that’s what Paul is talking about.
This isn’t a lets see how close I can get God still protect me. This is I learned that this is bad for me and I should actively work to stop doing it. Not only does it stop my growth with God, but it hurts in the long run.
Sinning is self abuse
You are actively inflicting pain on yourself. If someone was cutting themselves and we saw most people would desire that person to stop. That person typically desires to stop. But there is something broken inside that draws them to continue. It isn’t until we seek healing that the sin stops. It isn’t until we seek Wholeness that we will stop trying to fill the void.