Sunday, Sep. 10, 2006

Pentecost 14

Isaiah 35:4-7 (NLT)

Say to those who are afraid, "Be strong, and do not fear, for your God is coming to destroy your enemies. He is coming to save you." ⁵And when he comes, he will open the eyes of the blind and unstop the ears of the deaf. ⁶The lame will leap like a deer, and those who cannot speak will shout and sing! Springs will gush forth in the wilderness, and streams will water the desert. ⁷The parched ground will become a pool, and springs of water will satisfy the thirsty land. Marsh grass and reeds and rushes will flourish where desert jackals once lived.

Ps. 146

Mark 7:31-37 (NLT)

Jesus left Tyre and went to Sidon, then back to the Sea of Galilee and the region of the Ten Towns. ³²A deaf man with a speech impediment was brought to him, and the people begged Jesus to lay his hands on the man to heal him. ³³Jesus led him to a private place away from the crowd. He put his fingers into the man's ears. Then, spitting onto his own fingers, he touched the man's tongue with the spittle. ³⁴And looking up to heaven, he sighed and commanded, "Be opened!" ³⁵Instantly the man could hear perfectly and speak plainly!

³⁶Jesus told the crowd not to tell anyone, but the more he told them not to, the more they spread the news, ³⁷for they were completely amazed. Again and again they said, "Everything he does is wonderful. He even heals those who are deaf and mute."

Sermon: Original Sin

Today we are beginning a series of teachings on the basic building blocks of the Christian faith. I want to start at the beginning, the creation, Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, and what went wrong. The first major doctrine that we need to look at is called “original sin.” This important teaching of the church has taken a beating in our day. Many people, including clergy, don’t believe in this any more. Perhaps that explains why our whole teaching on the subject of sin has become so weak.

So let’s begin with this question:

What was the first thing that went wrong in the Garden of Eden? What would you say ________________?

There are many answers to that question. Pride. Greed. Rebellion. All of the selfish desires that drove our first ancestors to question God’s command. But I think the very first thing was doubt. The serpent placed a seed of doubt in Eve’s mind. “Did God really say you must not eat this fruit or touch it? ….. You will not surely die.” In other words, “You don’t really believe all this Word of God stuff, do you?” And she began to question God.

How about you? Do you ever hear that today? Do people ever say to you, “You don’t really believe the Bible is the Word of God, do you? How can you trust a book that’s thousands of years old?” And how do you answer?

I would say yes, I believe the Bible is the Word of God, and one of the reasons I believe it is precisely because it is so old. It has endured. Considering that it is the all time number one best seller in the world, and it has been around a hundred times longer than anything else on the best seller list, I think it deserves a good read.

Original sin is an idea that takes us to the root of our belief system, because it assumes that there are also original commandments, fundamental laws of God that have never changed, and that our disobedience to these laws goes back to the beginning of our race.

That is not a popular idea these days. Many people believe that sin is a very fluid, relative idea that changes as human standards of behavior change. But that is not what the Bible says. “The Word of the Lord stands forever…. Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will never pass away.”

Now, another question. How do we know that Adam and Eve were equally guilty of the sin that came into the human scene? Any answers _________?

There are two things I see in this story.

1. Where was Adam when the serpent came at Eve? God made the man and the woman to stand together. When they try to go it alone they are weaker. Men, when you pull away from your wife and leave her spiritually alone, she will be vulnerable to attack. And women, when you pull away from your husband and leave him alone he will be vulnerable. And this isn’t only for husbands and wives. It’s for the whole creation, especially the church. Men and women are meant to work together in order to complete the image of God. Neither gender reflects the image of God by itself. We need each other.

When Eve found herself under attack, she should have called out, “Adam, help me out here.” But she didn’t, and Adam wasn’t paying attention to where she was.

2. When Eve offered the forbidden fruit to Adam, what did he do _________? Let me ask you this. Was he tricked? Was he deceived by Eve? Did he not recognize the fruit that she was offering him? Of course he did. He knew exactly what the fruit of the forbidden tree looked like. But it’s strange, I don’t hear him protesting. I don’t hear him saying, “Eve! What’s happened to you? Let me pray for you. Let me rebuke that demon off of you so we can get back to what God intended for us.” And he could have done exactly that. He had the power to rebuke evil, and so do you and I. But he didn’t.

No, it says he took it without hesitation. Why? Because he wanted the same thing Eve did. He saw that she had become “like God, knowing good and evil.” And you know exactly what he thought: “Hey, I want what she’s got. She knows something I don’t, and I can’t let her get ahead of me.”

The point: We are so easily self-deceived. We see what someone else has and we want it. We don’t stop to ask if it’s what GOD wants for us. We measure our wants by what we see others having, not by God’s Word. And original sin displays its effect one more time. A small seed of doubt grows into a monstrous act of rebellion. It’s like a snowball rolling downhill, gathering size and momentum as it rolls.

Character will be molded by our choices.

Character will be revealed by our actions.

In your bulletin you have some notes on the sermon. I have to thank John Maxwell for his teaching on this subject. We have some blanks to fill in, so lets go through it.

Three Types of Christians: (John Maxwell)
1. Those who never dream big things for God- foggy .

2. Those who dream big things but seldom see them happen- frustrated .

3. Those who dream big things for God and see them become reality- fulfilled .

Qualities Needed To Do Big Things For God

1. Vision from God 2. Relationship with God

3. Unique Gifting from God 4. Blessing from God

5. Practical experience

6. Strong Character usually developed through Difficulty

Let’s look at those for a minute. Vision is absolutely essential. The scripture says, “without vision the people perish.” But the vision has to come from God. I always get nervous when I hear a church “planning their vision” or forming a committee to “create a vision.” True vision never begins with us, it comes from God.

Relationship. What can I say about that? I’ve said it a thousand times. Christianity is not a “religion”. Nor is it a philosophy of life, or a program. Christianity is a relationship with God through His Son Jesus Christ. Keeping that relationship fresh and growing should be our number one priority. That takes time, prayer, obedience, service, and LOTS of WORSHIP.

Gifting is God’s way of equipping us. We have studied spiritual gifts before. How many can you name ______________?

Blessing. Nothing we do can ultimately succeed unless God is willing to bless it. And we need to keep our wits about that. Years ago when Fred Goodwin came to work with our Vestry he had a saying I will never forget. “God won’t bless a mess.” How true. It is foolish to make our own plans based on human agendas and then assume that God will bless it just because we think He should.

Practical Experience. I think this is where Adam and Eve first got into trouble. They had no experience with the results of sin. They didn’t know just how bad things could get once you start doubting God’s Word.

Strong Character. That’s what we are going to talk about now. As we walk through these statements by John Maxwell on character, think about your own growth. And before we get back to the note page, there is one more quality we need that I would like to add to John Maxwell’s list. Write in number “7: Willingness to work.” I have known many people, and I’m sure you have too, who have been given godly vision, spiritual gifts and blessings, but they aren’t willing to dig in and do the hard work to bring the vision to birth.

Remember……

- You may not have all of these qualities.

- You can learn something from each of these qualities when they are modeled by another person.

- Some are your responsibility to develop.

- Some are given at God’s discretion.

If we create the right conditions in our lives, God will come and dwell in them.

“If My people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray and seek My face and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.” 2 Chron. 7:14

God doesn’t make the intimacy. We do. But God will reveal Himself to those who take steps to prepare for His presence.

Sin causes us to….

1. Keep our Distance from God

2. Disobey God

3. Withhold Affection from God

4. Avoid Responsibility for Wrongdoing

I think number three is so crucial for the church. When our affectionate desire for intimacy with God has cooled, we need to stop immediately and ask, “Is there some place where sin has crept in and crippled my spirit, dampened my praise?” Intimacy with God is a key to doing anything great for God. What does godly intimacy look like?

Intimacy is……

1. Security : “I am loved unconditionally”

2. Self-Worth : “I am important in this relationship”

3. Sensitivity : “I want to sense and meet your needs”

4. Sharing : “I want to spend time with you.”

Success (as God defines it) is obedience .

Gifts are given to us. Character is developed.

“Good character is more to be praised than outstanding talent. Most talents are, to some extent, a gift. Good character, by contrast, is not given to us. We have to build it piece by piece, by thought, choice, courage, and determination.” John Maxwell

Our character colors our perspective .

In any given situation, what you are determines what you see,

And what you see determines what you do.

“If I try to use human influence strategies and tactics of how to get other people to do what I want, to work better, to be more motivated, to like me and each other- while my character is fundamentally flawed, marked by duplicity or insincerity – then in the long run, I cannot be successful. My duplicity will breed distrust, and everything I do, even using so-called good human relations techniques, will be perceived as manipulative. It simply makes no difference how dood the ghetoric is or even how good the intentions are; if there is little or not trust, there is no foundation for permanent success. Only basic goodness gives life to technique.” (Steven R. Covey. )

I was really struck by that quote. Steven Covey has spent his life writing and teaching on the subject of leadership all over the world. But here he is telling us, no matter how many books you read, seminars you attend, techniques you learn, if your character is not good, you cannot succeed at anything.

We cannot rise above the limitations of our character.

Our attitude toward our experiences determines if they will help us.

- A bad experience with a good attitude = Growth .

- A good experience with a bad attitude = Failure .

- A good experience with a good attitude = Confidence .

Never take God’s blessings for granted.

Never take credit for God’s blessings.

In the notes, you have this poem which sums it up so well.

I counted dollars

While God counted crosses.

I counted gains

While He counted losses.

I counted my worth,

my things gained in store.

He sized me up

by the scars that I bore.

I counted honors

and sought degrees.

He counted the hours

I spent on my knees.

I never knew

until one day by the grave

How vain are the things

that we spend life to save.