Web of Entanglement
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Introduction:
Anyone good at untangling things?
I am great at tangling things: necklaces, wool (I love knitting), when I was younger my hair always had tangles.
This time of year we see lots of spider webs as decorations. I remember as a kid going for walks and ended up walking through a spider web.
Anyone feel the pain of that?
Anyone but me have that experience?
you start swiping wildly through the air, because you just walked through a sticky invisible mess. It feels disgusting!!!!
Then you remember not only did you walk through a web but it was made by a spider! That means that spider could be crawling somewhere on you! The troubling thought now overtakes and you almost jump out of your skin.
Then you desperatly look around embarrased because someone could have been watching you loose your mind for no reason. Because remember they can’t see the spiderweb and don’t know what you are reacting to.
Prayer: Lord, Open our eyes, open our ears and hearts to what God has for us!
Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us,
This verse talks about throwing off the weight that hinders and the sin that entangles!
We have spent a lot of time talk about the weight that weighs us down and wears us out. Now let’s talk about the sin that easily entangles us!
Look at your life:
What is the struggle that keeps tripping you up?
Retribution
Gossip
Control
Envy
Pride
Control
Worth
Unforgiveness
Pleasure
Behind the snags and entanglement is something appealing and that attraction calls out, deep down to who we are.
The deeper one goes into the center of the web the farther one gets from being free.
We need to do as scripture teaches us.
Throw off the sin that easily entangles us.
Throw off the sin that easily entangles us.
In your struggle against sin, you have not yet resisted to the point of shedding your blood.
This is not going to be easy - throwing off the sin that entangles us.
But the writer of Hebrews states it could be a lot worse.
Another problem - the more tangled up in sin you become, the less you seem to notice or care.
Sin hardens the heart
Sin makes you feel ok with the damage you may be doing to yourself.
It also makes you forget what you are doing to yourself and others.
Complacency sets in!
Effect of sin
Effect of sin
Sin overtime turns us into pride and can make us roll our eyes at the need for forgivenss.
It makes one comfortable with sinning and thinks it is the new normal.
Psalm 32 David speaks about the effect that sin had on him. David was tangled up with sin due to the affair with Bathsheba. When he reused to deal with it and then it wore him down.
When I kept silent,
my bones wasted away
through my groaning all day long.
For day and night
your hand was heavy on me;
my strength was sapped
as in the heat of summer.
When you get caught in a web you go through all your energy and it wears you out. It causes you to run out of steam and then begin to tell yourself there are worse things than being stuck in this web. You start to get comfortable there.
Sin is known for many side effects but there are two prominent ones:
Guilt
Shame
Guilt reminds us of what we have done
Shame tries to convince us what we have done and makes us believe that is who we are.
Guilt is an anchor to the past.
You cannot go forward when you are anchored to the past. It causes you to blow the engine and run out of gas.
Guilt keeps you from moving but shame tells you this is your destiny. It makes you think and believe you are meant to be stuck there.
These two things create a link between your failure and then your identity.
Self condemnation is powerful, and it points to giving up.
Shame always comes to the surface.
Guilt and shame are difficult to overcome.
Its like you have a record and everywhere you look you have that reminder you have a record. You apply for a job then have to check the box that states felon.
You carry shame like an invisible chain.
Sin separates us from God. In order to move on, in order to be free we have to deal with sin.
Dealing with Sin
Dealing with Sin
Sin separates us from God, then blames God for the separation. It builds a wall that cuts us off, then blames God for that wall.
Here are some ways we tend to deal with sin:
avoid God and those we have hurt
pretend it is all good and just push on
blame someone else
cannot take the blame and admit we messed up
The book of Hebrews teaches us that there was a religious system God set up to deal with sin. It involved sacrifice. But that system was misunderstood and abused.
The law is only a shadow of the good things that are coming—not the realities themselves. For this reason it can never, by the same sacrifices repeated endlessly year after year, make perfect those who draw near to worship. Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins. But those sacrifices are an annual reminder of sins. It is impossible for the blood of bulls and goats to take away sins.
This scripture teachs why that system fell short and points our something interesting.
Not only did the system fail but people were having a hard time letting go of the old habits of religion but they were getting the whole thing backwards.
Sacrifices were never intended to make people clean in any genuine way. These gifts were reminders of the sin that was so inevitable in everyone’s life.
People began to think the sacrifices really made things right again: sin removed, case closed right?
Otherwise, would they not have stopped being offered? For the worshipers would have been cleansed once for all, and would no longer have felt guilty for their sins.
The readers of Hebrews needed to understand how sin really worked if they were going to avoid being entangled in it.
Jesus did what the law could not!
He gave Himself as an offering on our behalf to make things right with God.
One sacrifice for all time to break the cycle.
let us draw near to God with a sincere heart and with the full assurance that faith brings, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water.
Come boldly into the presence of Christ. Let Him scrub away the guilt. Let the shame be rinsed once and for all.
No more cycles. Jesus can take on every bit of it.
Jesus has shown us and for all what it means to be clean, perfect and righteous in a way we can never be.
for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God, and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Everyone one of us earned judgement and punishment. We were fallen. We cannot live a sinless moment.
None of our failures have to be counted. All of them can be forgiven and the punishment we should receive and can be assigned, all at once to what Jesus endured on the cross for our shame.
Take a look at the word righteousness.
In modern context it means “proof of worth” or “proof of value”.
When you apply for a job your resume is proof of worth.
When you apply to a college you show grades, test scores, and whatever experiences or accomplishments might make the case that you are worthy to be accepted.
Both Romans and Hebrews points out no one was righteous enough.
There is a righteouness apart from the law, meaning you don’t have to come up with possible credentials.
Jesus lived that life for you.
He tells us here is how its done, then takes his credentials and places them in your hands.
We only need the faith to let Christ represent us.
and all are justified freely by his grace through the redemption that came by Christ Jesus.
Think about what this means “justified freely”
Justified - is a synonym for forgiven - not only forgiven for failures but credited for the righteousness of Jesus.
It is like being told that not only did you make the team but you have all the stats and honors of the greatest player ever.
The doctrinal term used for this is “imputed righteousness”
Imputed - “to credit”
Jesus has perfect credit score in righteousness and it is imputed to us.
God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement, through the shedding of his blood—to be received by faith. He did this to demonstrate his righteousness, because in his forbearance he had left the sins committed beforehand unpunished—
This verse explains how God pulls this off. God presented Christ as a sacrifice of atonement through the shedding of his blood - to be received by faith.
Atonement - at-one-ment
The sacrifice makes us at-one or at peace with God.
Paul explains this in Romans.
God did not ignore our sin, by looking the other way saying no big deal. .
The debt was the largest possible - the sin of the whole world.
God paid that debt with the ultimate sacrifice - all the perfection and purity of the Son of God.
God made him who had no sin to be sin for us, so that in him we might become the righteousness of God.
illustration:
Standing in courtroom
your record is pulled out and all the things done are exposed.
Start to panic because it is a thick document, thousands of pages long.
But our faith in Christ reminds us that those pages are blank.
That happened the moment we said yes to Jesus it was all stricken from the record.
Nothing we could say or do could be held against us.
God looks into our eyes and sees His only Son. He smiles and throws His arms around us and says again and again. I love you!
And then He says to us “We have so much work to do in this world Let’s get to work!”
It all starts with faith. The power is all in Christ.
But faith is the button that activates it.
Do you have faith?
Hebrews talks about the sin that so easily entangles.
Every other sin is rooted in unbelief because of course it is the opposite of faith.
Conclusion:
If faith is the button that activates every wonderful thing that can happens in our lives, unbelief is the refusal to push it.
Now faith is confidence in what we hope for and assurance about what we do not see.
Do you really believe God is your refuge and strength?
God is our refuge and strength,
an ever-present help in trouble.
Do you really believe that in all tings God works for the good of those who love Him?
And we know that in all things God works for the good of those who love him, who have been called according to his purpose.
Do you believe that nothing can separate us from the love of God?
neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.
Do you really believe that God’s mercies are infinite and new every morning?
Because of the Lord’s great love we are not consumed,
for his compassions never fail.
They are new every morning;
great is your faithfulness.
Your identity is not based in what you have done or not done. It is based in what Jesus has done for you. God looks at us and sees Christ. He sees purity, righteousness, and infinite possibility.
Once there were terrible words to describe who you were. Those words are null and void in your case now.
You are a new creation in Christ.
You are forgiven
You are beloved
You are a full heir to the kingdom of God.
Next time you feel caught in the web, realize you don’t need to be there.
Jesus untangles us and set us free.
Do not give up!
He has freed us from the weight of sin and sham.
Do you believe it?
