A Systematic Approach to Fixing Things

4 Steps to Fix any problem

Genesis 3 KJV 1900

1 Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? 2 And the woman said unto the serpent, We may eat of the fruit of the trees of the garden: 3 But of the fruit of the tree which is in the midst of the garden, God hath said, Ye shall not eat of it, neither shall ye touch it, lest ye die. 4 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: 5 For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. 6 And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat. 7 And the eyes of them both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons. 8 And they heard the voice of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day: and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God amongst the trees of the garden. 9 And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou? 10 And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden, and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself. 11 And he said, Who told thee that thou wast naked? Hast thou eaten of the tree, whereof I commanded thee that thou shouldest not eat? 12 And the man said, The woman whom thou gavest to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I did eat. 13 And the Lord God said unto the woman, What is this that thou hast done? And the woman said, The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat. 14 And the Lord God said unto the serpent, Because thou hast done this, thou art cursed above all cattle, and above every beast of the field; upon thy belly shalt thou go, and dust shalt thou eat all the days of thy life: 15 And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed; it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel. 16 Unto the woman he said, I will greatly multiply thy sorrow and thy conception; in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband, and he shall rule over thee. 17 And unto Adam he said, Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and hast eaten of the tree, of which I commanded thee, saying, Thou shalt not eat of it: cursed is the ground for thy sake; in sorrow shalt thou eat of it all the days of thy life; 18 Thorns also and thistles shall it bring forth to thee; and thou shalt eat the herb of the field; 19 In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, till thou return unto the ground; for out of it wast thou taken: for dust thou art, and unto dust shalt thou return. 20 And Adam called his wife’s name Eve; because she was the mother of all living. 21 Unto Adam also and to his wife did the Lord God make coats of skins, and clothed them. 22 And the Lord God said, Behold, the man is become as one of us, to know good and evil: and now, lest he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever: 23 Therefore the Lord God sent him forth from the garden of Eden, to till the ground from whence he was taken. 24 So he drove out the man; and he placed at the east of the garden of Eden Cherubims, and a flaming sword which turned every way, to keep the way of the tree of life.

Intro-

So before we dive in here I feel it necessary to explain a bit about what I am attempting to do. I am using the big problem and reason for all of our problems, sin, as an example of how I believe God wants us to resolve all of our problems large and small. These four steps we will talk about will work for spiritual or earthly issues, and they will work for personal and congregational problems. But, they all work together and in this order. If you don’t do number 1 you will have no reason to do number 4. If you don’t do number 2 you will never figure out number 3. If your a bit confused just stay with me for a while and by the grace of God, it will make sense. My goal here is to show you that this systematic method we are about to look at works. Even though content of this message is extremely important, especially if you have not put your faith in Christ, the main thing I want to get across to you is this process.

I (and probably a lot of you also) have spent a good portion of my life troubleshooting things. It started for me probably when I was about 16. My twin brother and I used to have a car that had a fairly decent stereo system in it. We installed it ourselves. We also identified the problems when something went wrong. Sometimes it was a loose wire sometimes it was a bit more complicated. No matter what it was we always tried to fix it ourselves. Then I joined the Navy and was training for the Electronics Technician Rate. We had this machine that we would put circuit boards on, put in a certain code that would fault a certain component. We would then use an oscilloscope to trace and discover what was wrong with it. In my personal life, being a homeowner and parent, I spend a ton of time tracing and fixing issues at home. Water leaks, electrical issues, children’s toys, and even human injuries to a certain extent to name a few. In my professional life, I spent 10 years working for a company that designed and built Computer Control Systems for Industrial refrigeration. Part of my responsibilities was software testing. We would use a simulation device to increase and decrease pressures and temperatures and make sure everything was working. Sometimes a simulated sensor would not trigger the desired response. It would go back to the software department so that they could trace the issue in the code (that was well above my head). I install septic systems and even though I am usually putting in new systems there are always issues that arise that I need to troubleshoot and find a solution too so the system can be installed and work properly. Of course the first step to any troubleshooting operation is CHECK THE SETUP. In other words make sure it is plugged in and the switch is on. Check the basics first. But, even this step comes after realizing something is not operating as it is intended. This premise of troubleshooting is also sometimes how I and I am sure most Pastor’s decide what to preach. We see an issue within our own lives usually and sometimes in the lives of the congregation and we attempt to repair this issues (through no work of our own but through the Holy Spirit) by looking to scripture to see what caused it, what options are there to fix it, and how do we implement the best option. Similar to the trouble shooting of things in our lives, most times it is best to see what the creator of that object says the problem and solutions could be.

Identify that there is a problem

Everything wrong and bad in the world is our fault collectively as Humans. God's Creation was perfect until we allowed it to be corrupted by sin.

Adam and Eve had an unadulterated, uninterrupted presence with God in the Garden until they gave into deception and temptation.

As a result of their disobedience they were removed from the Garden and the presence of God.

Sin

When it comes to Humanity, sin is the problem. Always. It is the only problem. Without sin we would have no pain, or sadness, or sickness, or death. No deceit, or anger. No worry, anxiety or depression.

Everything bad that we face today is caused by sin. Now I am not saying that every illness you have, or the death of a loved one is caused directly by a specific sin of yours. That’s what Jobs' friends claimed and they were rebuked by God for it. I am saying that without the stain of sin on this world there would be none of that.

Let’s look ahead for a moment to Revelation 21 where a New Heaven and New Earth are being revealed to the Apostle John. John says all the tears of men will be wiped away by God himself, and there shall be no more death, no Sorrow, no crying. Never another hint of pain.

Later in the chapter John sees a city, The New Jerusalem descending from heaven. He goes on to describe the beauty of this amazing Holy City. Read it, it sounds amazing. This place is so radiantly beautiful John says it doesn’t even need the Sun.

Revelation 21:24-27 “24 By its light will the nations walk, and the kings of the earth will bring their glory into it, 25 and its gates will never be shut by day—and there will be no night there. 26 They will bring into it the glory and the honor of the nations. 27 But nothing unclean will ever enter it, nor anyone who does what is detestable or false, but only those who are written in the Lamb’s book of life.”

Then in verse 24 John says And the nations of them which are saved shall walk in the light of it: and the kings of the earth do bring their glory and honour into it.

Then we skip down to verse 27 And there shall in no wise enter into it any thing that defileth, neither whatsoever worketh abomination, or maketh a lie: but they which are written in the Lamb’s book of life

This is how we would live had there never been sin.

Every relationship problem, every worry, every ache and pain, every death, every disaster, every bad day at work, cancer, Covid-19, our brothers and sisters in Christ scared to come back to Church, ALL OF IT STARTED WHEN OUR REPRESENTATIVE, ADAM, WAS DECEIVED BY SATAN AND ATE THAT FRUIT

Assess The Cause

Now that the problem has been identified we need to see what caused the issue so we can fix it. As I stated earlier the first step to any troubleshooting is to check the setup. God did the setup on this one so we can skip that step because we know that part was done correctly. So what is the cause of sin?

I would love to get into a deep theological debate here about where sin actually came from but we won't dive that deep on that today. I will mention that God is Holy and can do no evil and sin is evil. Therefore he could not have started sin. He could however allow sin to enter in. Point is: God is Holy and can not sin.

All the world's problems stem from 3 things. We find these things laid out in John’s first epistle. 1 John 2:16 “16 For all that is in the world—the desires of the flesh and the desires of the eyes and pride of life—is not from the Father but is from the world.”

It may seem like an oversimplification of such a complexly messed up world but when we break it down ALL SIN STARTS WITH ONE OF THESE THREE THINGS. Even Adam’s Sin. Even Satan’s Sin. EVEN the temptations of Jesus fall directly into these three categories. The desires of the flesh, Satan tell s Jesus to make the stones become bread. The Pride of life, Satan then said throw yourself off the top of this temple you are too important for God to allow anything to happen to you. He wont even allow you to stub your toe. The lust of the eyes, Satan showed Jesus, he didn’t just tell him about them, he showed to Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and said all this I will give to you if only you bow down and worship me. The lust of the flesh, the pride of life, and the lust of the eyes

We see all three of these things very clearly affecting Adam and Eve’s action in Genesis 3.

The desires of the flesh in 1 John 2:16 refers to the hedonistic urges in us as humans.

Hedonism is the pursuit of pleasure. Eve saw that the tree was good for food? Genesis 3:6 “6 So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food,...”

Back in verses 1-3 of Genesis 3 it was established that this one tree was the only tree that they could not eat from. This tree was not needed for food. There was plenty of food. This tree was desirable for food. Eve thought this tree would be pleasing, it was desirable. She wanted the pleasure that would surely come from eating the fruit of the tree in the midst of the garden. The Desires of the flesh

Man is this world currently overrun with Hedonism. The sexuality movement of our day for example. The extent pornography infects our culture. We want our pleasure now. We all struggle with hedonism in some way or another. We all battle the urge. Gluttony is a hedonistic urge. We want the pleasure of more money. We all are infected with this issue.

still in verse 6 Genesis 3:6 “6 ....... and that it was a pleasant (or a delight) to the eyes”

We have the lust of the eyes. I have no doubt that this tree and its fruit were beautiful. Maybe more beautiful than any other in the Garden. It was visually attractive and desirable.

The lust of the eyes is Covetousness.

We as fallen man desire what we don’t or can’t have. We see our neighbor with a better boat than we have; we want it. We see a brother or sister pull into the Church parking lot with a brand new pick-up. We want it. We see that beautiful woman or handsome man that isn’t our spouse and the desire of our eyes makes us covet. And sometimes that leads us to hedonistic urges.

Eve saw this beautiful tree that God said don’t partake of (he never said don’t touch as she recalled) and she desired it. She wanted that tree more than she wanted what God had promised.

Man is our world overrun with this. Again I point to pornography. WE WANT WHAT IS BEAUTIFUL. We want what is visually attractive. I’m sure there are very few ugly people in pornography.

What about the materialism that infects our culture? COVETOUSNESS. The lust of the eyes.

While the lust of the eyes sometimes fuels the lust of the flesh, the Pride of life is what fuels both.

The pride of life is our drive to be independent of our creator or be our own gods. This also seen in Genesis 3:6 “and that the tree was to be desired to make one wise,”

Eve desired wisdom. More specifically she wanted God’s wisdom.

She wanted to know what God knows. She wanted to not need Him.

I can relate. I tried so hard for 34 years to be my own god; to be the author of my own life. As a matter of fact I was taught that I wasn’t really a man if I leaned on a “crutch” like God. My parents didn’t teach me this, but society did.

It's not just men though. Ladies, I know a lot of you were taught and you believed that you had to do it on your own. That there was no help out there and besides you are only a real woman if you can handle it all and handle it perfectly. You saw your mothers and grandmothers do it (or seem to do it) and figured you too had to do it alone.

THIS WORLD WANTS INDEPENDENCE.

Look around. Watch the News. The people of this world do everything they can to delete the Creator from the world. They take pride in themselves. I mean we have Gay Pride, Black Pride, White Pride. Pride in out political party, pride in our denomination, and our country (nationalism) and all other kinds of pride.

We (like Adam and Eve) want to be self made. Even after all the destruction we have caused, we still think we can do it on our own. The pride of life.

Sin is the problem. Not just Adam's sin. Your Sin. The sins in your life daily. The sins you hide from everyone and try to hide from God himself. These sins are the cause of every problem in the World. The sins of omission, the sins of commission, the sins that our culture says aren’t sins, and the sins of our thoughts that would repulse the most liberally minded people of the world.

Weigh Potential Solutions

The next step when troubleshooting any problem is to come up with and weigh solutions to the problem.

Some problems have more than one solution. If you have a plumbing issue for example there may be more than one way to fix the issue. Maybe a couple of shark bite fittings and a short piece of pipe will work at the same time you could sweat some new copper couplings and piece of pipe together. Both solutions are adequate.

Many problems in our lives we can fix ourselves.

When it comes to sin in our lives we have options. However, only one of them is adequate to fix the problem

Do it Your way

The first option, the option we all try over and over again, is to do it our way.

That never works does it. Every time we try to fix sin in our lives on our own it only gets worse doesn’t it? Scripture is clear that we have no clue what we are doing on our own.

Proverbs 28:26

26 Whoever trusts in his own mind is a fool,

but he who walks in wisdom will be delivered.

Proverbs 14:12

12 There is a way that seems right to a man,

but its end is the way to death.

Proverbs 3:6

6 In all your ways acknowledge him,

and he will make straight your paths.

Are a few verses that relay this thought. When we try to fix sin our way, it only ends in death.

We can not sanctify or clean ourselves. We cannot ourselves eradicate sin from our lives.

Titus 3:5

5 Not by works of righteousness which we have done, but according to his mercy he saved us, by the washing of regeneration, and renewing of the Holy Ghost;

If we rely on ourselves to fix it it will never be fixed right.

Call an expert

The second option is to leave the repairs to the expert.

Sometimes the problems in our lives are beyond our capabilities to fix. Sin is ALWAYS beyond our capabilities.

You can ask my wife and she will tell you, I am pretty handy around the house when it comes to repairing things. When I actually do it she might add, but that is another sermon. I can handle almost anything but occasionally an issue arises where I either don’t know how to fix it or I try to fix it and make it worse.

We had a problem with our well a few years ago our pump kept cavitating (getting air in it) and losing prime. I replaced the check valve, the bladder tank, the pump ended up burning up so I replaced that but still it continued. I looked all over the yard for the well for months it was nowhere near where the plan filed with the County said it was. I dug holes all over the yard, tried a metal detector and nothing. I had to call someone that knew what they were doing. Thank God Mike White was that guy. He came over with his device that sends a slight electric current down the pipe and you can pick it up with another device. We found it and found the issue. He helped me fix it and we haven’t had a problem since (until I mention it in a sermon).

The point is no matter what I did I couldn't fix the problem. We can’t fix the problem of sin either.

Only God can fix sin. Fixing the overarching sin problem with humanity and the sin that is in our individual lives both require God.

Only He can forgive and Only He can Sanctify. 1 John 1:7-9 covers both

1 John 1:7–9 ESV

7 But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus his Son cleanses us from all sin. 8 If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. 9 If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

In John’s Gospel account he opens by telling us that Jesus Christ (the Word) is God. He reminds of this fact in the opening of his first epistle and then we come to verse 7-9 and we see the forgiveness and the sanctification. If we put it all together we understand that Jesus is responsible for both the forgiveness of the sins of the world and the sanctification of you and I.

What does this mean? It means that through Jesus Christ not only can we have hope for eternal life because we are forgiven through him John 3:16, “For God so loved the world, that He gave his only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” But, we can also defeat sin in our lives now. Hebrews 10:10. And by that will we have been sanctified through the offering of the body of Jesus Christ once for all.”

That word sanctified in Greek is hagazio; it means to purify or to separate from profane things. The Holy Spirit sets us apart in Jesus Christ and also works in us to bring us into obedience to Christ.

1 Peter 1:2

2 Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

HE IS THE ONLY WAY TO FIX THE SIN

4. Implement the Best Solution

Now we know the problem, we know what caused the problem, we have weighed the solutions, now we have to implement the solution. Not a temporary solution but a permanent one, an Eternal solution to the problem of sin.

We as Christians like to use patches to cover our holes like a bicycle tire. The problem is patches don’t last, fixing it does. We like to use the “easy fix” that doesn't cost as much and doesn't take as much time.

I do that under my house at 11pm when a pipe springs a leak. I also do it in my life. I sin and then put a patch on it. “Sorry Jesus. It’s just who I am.” “God I know I am wrong but I will do better next time.” I patch over my sins, never letting them be fixed by the expert.

Sultana Disaster

Sultana was a commercial side-wheel steamboat which exploded and sank on the Mississippi River on April 27, 1865, killing 1,168 people in what remains the worst maritime disaster in United States history.

In 1865 not long after President Lincoln had been assassinated, the Sultana docked in Vicksburg Mississippi. The captain of the Sultana , Captain James Cass Mason, was approached by Captain Reuben Hatch, the chief quartermaster in Vicksburg. CaptainHatch wanted Mason to carry recently released union POWs from Vicksburg to northern states at $2.75 per man. That works be nearly $50 a man today. The Sultana was rated for 376 passengers. The Captain loaded 1,960 soldiers on the steamboat. Easy 100 grand. Too make matters worse they were having boiler issues. One of the boilers was leaking. The mechanic suggested replacing a boiler that had a ruptured seam that would have taken days to repair. Captain Mason was determined to get these union soldiers home as soon as possible. It really was a noble thought. Despite the money, it seems Captain Mason truly wanted to get the sill soldiers home. He told the mechanic to just patch the leaky seam. As the Sultana headed north extremely overloaded and upstream (against the flow) of the Mississippi River, 7 miles north of Memphis, the leaky boiler could handle no more. It exploded and caused the second and third to explode also. The boilers jettisoned through the crowded decks, and through the pilot house. Then came the fire which is said to have burned so hot it boiled water for a quarter mile radius around the drifting fire ball. The exact death toll is unknown but, evidence suggests 1,168 died. All because a problem was patched and not fixed.

Patching things instead of fixing them tend to cause problems to worsen instead of get better.

Don’t just patch or cover over your sin, go to God, the Expert so He can fix it right.

DON’T PATCH IT, FIX IT

Conclusion.

Defeating sin is out of our hands we must lean on the Expert for this. We can also lean on him to fix other problems in our lives and in our church. Things we can’t fix without him. If we can identify the problems. Many times the creators of an object give us a manual for our object. These manuals that are given are not usually repair manuals but, they tell you how whatever it is is supposed to work. If you don’t know how it is supposed to work you won’t know it isn’t working right. Our Creator has given us ways to know how things are supposed to work here on Earth and in-turn we can tell when they are not working quite right. How?

Know the Son. He is the only way to access the expert, His Father. John 14:6 “Jesus said to him, “I am the way, and the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me.”

Ephesians 2:18 “For through Him we both have access in one Spirit to the Father.”

If you have yet to put your faith in Christ, you have no hope. No hope for the eternal future, no hope for the present. No hope of fixing it. No access to the Expert who can fix the ultimate issue, SIN.

Outside of Christ the problem will continue to grow. Romans 2:5

Romans 2:5 KJV 1900

5 But after thy hardness and impenitent heart treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment of God;

There is only one who is worthy to bring you to the Father. Only one worthy to defeat sin. Jesus Christ. Revelation 5:12 “saying with a loud voice, “Worthy is the Lamb who was slain, to receive power and wealth and wisdom and might and honor and glory and blessing!”” If you don’t have faith in Him I pray that right now today you would accept the free gift of Grace offered to you through Him.

Get yourself in church (even if it is online) and get under the preaching of a Bible believing preacher. I don't care what church. Get yourself in a church that preaches Christ crucified for your sins and resurrected on the third day to defeat death. I would love for it to be this church but it can be any Bible teaching church. Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, 25 not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

I am coming to terms with the fact that we are living in different times. I miss this church being filled with people but, we have to understand where we are in history. We have the ability and opportunity to minister and gather from great distances. We do not need to be in the same room to fellowship. I feel that it is a better option to meet and fellowship in person, face to face however, we live in a time when we can meet with our brothers and sisters online, we can give the Gospel to people from across the globe with out leaving our homes.

This might not be an ideal scenario we live in right now but, that might be a good thing. We just need to be intentional in our fellowship. Reach Out to each other however you can. Be intentional to put your focus on God on Sunday mornings and everyday for that matter) whether you are meeting in person or online. I know personally I need to try a lot harder to focus on God if I am watching service from home. Serve the church, however you can. Some of us need to fix our intentionality in this present time. We need to reach out to those we miss and some we don’t miss. Some of us need to fix our attitudes and perspective towards those who chose to worship and attend church differently.

Reminder we cannot fix this on our own. Only the Expert can fix these things in pour lives.

Get in the word of God. Get in your Bible. Get in the psalms and hymns and spiritual songs that we are called to use as teaching and admonishing. Did you realize that? We are told to teach using songs. Colossians 3:16

Colossians 3:16 KJV 1900

16 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to the Lord.

GET IN THE WORD. If you aren’t in the word of God you will never even identify that there is a problem let alone get around to getting it fixed. Only The Expert can work in our hearts to Convict us of things we need to fix. In our personal lives and our church

Pray and fast about the sins in your life and the sins in the lives of your brothers and sisters. That is how we call the expert in. We pray. We fast . Ezra 8:23

Ezra 8:23 KJV 1900

23 So we fasted and besought our God for this: and he was intreated of us.

Fasting helps align our will to God’s will. It brings an urgency and importunity to our praying. It doesn't change God’s mind or change whether He hears our prayers but it does change our prayer. Be in prayer and fasting for your transgressions after you confess them Psalm 35:13 “But I, when they were sick— I wore sackcloth; I afflicted myself with fasting; I prayed with head bowed on my chest.” 1 Samuel 7:6 “So they gathered at Mizpah and drew water and poured it out before the Lord and fasted on that day and said there, “We have sinned against the Lord.” And Samuel judged the people of Israel at Mizpah.”

Call on Him only he can Fix it

One point that I don't want you to miss here is the process. These 4 steps work in almost all circumstances. They should be continually used in our spiritual lives. Identify the issues, assess what is causing that issue, how can I fix this issue, and ALWAYS CALL ON THE EXPERT. Always take your troubles to God.

Action Step

By the Grace of God I will implement the one solution to sin in my life (Jesus Christ) through the hearing of preaching, the reading of his Word, and through prayer and fasting for the eradication of the sin that still remains in me.