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Terminator: Genisys – Endings & Beginnings

July 13, 2015 by Leave a Comment

GodOnFilm

Terminator: Genisys – Endings & Beginnings
Sycamore Creek Church
July 12/13, 2015
Tom Arthur

 

 

I’ll be back!

Have you ever tried to stop doing something?  It’s hard.  Maybe you’re trying to stop eating sugar or greasy foods.  Or stop staying yes to everything.  Or stop watching too much TV.  Or stop smoking.  Or stop telling white lies.  Or stop looking at porn.  Or stop criticizing your spouse.  Or stop raising your voice at your kids.  Or stop worrying.  Or stop spending money impulsively.  Or stop speeding.  Or stop texting while driving.  Or stop posing.  The habit just keeps saying “I’ll be back.”  What in your life do you need to terminate?

Homer Simpson says, “Trying is the first step toward failure.”  Trying to stop something is hard.  That’s why the first step toward termination is dying.  Paul, the first missionary of the church and the author of many of the books of the Bible said:

Or have you forgotten that when we were joined with Christ Jesus in baptism, we joined him in his death? For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism.
~Romans 6:3-4 NLT

Today as we celebrate the baptism of many in our church we continue in this series, God on Film, with the movie Terminator: Genisys.  Each week we’re looking at a theme the summer’s blockbusters evoke.  This week I’m struck by the irony in the title.  Terminator implies ending.  Genisys implies beginning.  So as we move toward baptism today I want to explore two things that we terminate in baptism and two things that begin in baptism.  You can call them our “to stop doing list” and our “to do list.”

2 Things that Need to be Terminated: Shifting Allegiances

If you’re not that familiar with the Terminator movies, let me give you a quick recap.  Skynet is an Evil Artificial Intelligence that launches an attack to exterminate humanity on a day called “Judgement Day.” John Connor is the Tech-Com human resistance leader.  Sarah Connor is John Connor’s mom.  Kyle Reese is a Tech-Com lieutenant sent back to save Sarah from Skynet’s plan to kill her through time travel.  The Terminator is played by Arnold Schwarznegger, but there are more than one terminator.  There’s the T-1000, T-X, T-800 are other future Terminator Models.

Some version of the terminator is always trying to, well, terminate Sarah or John Connor or some other key person to the future human resistance.  In the first Terminator movie (1984), Arnold Schwarzenegger is a bad guy.  He’s out to kill Sarah.  But in Terminator 2, Judgment Day (1991), Schwarzenegger changes allegiances and is a good guy. He’s out to save Sarah.  In Terminator 3, Rise of the Machines (2003), Schwarzenegger’s Terminator alternates allegiances between good guy, bad guy, good guy.  Then  Schwarzenegger takes a break from 2003 to 2011 to be the Governator and Terminator 4, Salvation (2009) comes out and Schwarzenegger is rendered in CGI.  Then this summer we get Terminator 5, Genisys (2015), and Schwarzenegger is once again the good guy protecting Sarah Connor and Kyle Reese from, the last person you expected to be the bad guy, John Connor, Sarah’s son!  Talk about shifting allegiances.  Back and forth.  Flip flop.  Good guy.  Bad guy.

Paul knows that we’re tempted to shift our allegiances back and forth and so he tells us:

Well then, should we keep on sinning so that God can show us more and more of his wonderful grace? Of course not! Since we have died to sin, how can we continue to live in it?
~Romans 6:1-2 NLT

Sin is a force inside us that causes us to miss the mark, intentionally and unintentionally, and we keep flip flopping our allegiance back and forth with it.  This causes our external allegiances to be constantly shifting.  What’s really worth our allegiance?  What determines our allegiances?  Sometimes we form allegiances based on where we were born: Neighborhood, City, State, Region, or Country (“I pledge allegiance to the flag…”).  Or we base our allegiances on our education: High School, College (Spartans vs. Wolverines), or Grad School (Blue Devils).  Or we base our allegiances upon politics: Republican, Democrat, Green Party, Natural Law, or Independent.  In our culture our allegiances are often to price:  Sales, Deals, and Coupons or advertising and marketing: brand and celebrity.  Or novelty: the latest tech, ideas, or fads.  Or maybe we base our allegiances on our family: spouse, parents, grandparents, or kids.  All the while God is asking for our full allegiance.  Yet our allegiances are cyclical.  Self – God – Self – God

We keep telling God: “I’ll be back.”

Today, those being baptized are making a choice to TERMINATE shifting allegiances.  That’s the first thing to stop doing.

2 Things that Need to be Terminated: Sin’s Control

The second thing that is on our “to stop doing” list is sin’s control over our lives.  Paul says:

Do not let sin control the way you live; do not give in to sinful desires.
~Romans 6:12 NLT

Remember, sin is a force inside us that causes us to miss the mark, intentionally and unintentionally.  It has control over us.  We give it control.  We succumb to its control.  Yet Paul tells us to not let sin control the way we live.  Yet we often feel helpless against the power of sin within us.

Today those being baptized are being given a new power to TERMINATE sin’s power and hold over us. The new power is the Holy Spirit!  The Holy Spirit is God’s presence and power at work in us.  It’s not that God isn’t at work in you before you are baptized, but that in baptism you’re fully submitting to participate and cooperate with God’s Presence, the Holy Spirit’s work in you.  This is why we anoint with oil after baptism.  Oil is a symbol of the Holy Spirit.

So does this mean that we never sin again after we’re baptized?  No.  But as John Wesley, the founder of the Methodist church says, “Sin remains but it does not reign.”  Tide of the war is won, but battles remain.  Daily we have to “repent” or turnaround from the ways we’re heading away from God and turn toward God.  And yet, something significant changes.  I’m reminded of my son learning to ride a bike.  In the last month he’s gone to a peddle two-wheel bike with no training wheels.  He knows how to balance.  He’ll never forget how to balance on a bike.  You can’t unlearn how to ride a bike.  (Yeah.  Yeah.  Yeah.  The skeptics are thinking about how you can lose your inner ear balance ability.  Stop stretching my analogies to the breaking point!)  But just because Micah can’t unlearn how to ride a bike doesn’t mean he won’t fall and scrape himself up.  Sin remains but it does not reign.

Today those being baptized are TERMINATE-ing two things:

  1. Shifting Allegiances
  2. Sin’s Control

Say it with me: “Hasta la vista baby.”

2 Beginnings in Baptism: Give yourselves completely to God

So we’ve talked about what gets terminated in baptism but what about two things that begin in baptism?  The first is this: you give yourself completely to God.  No more shifting allegiances.  Complete and total devotion to God. Paul says:

Instead, give yourselves completely to God, for you were dead, but now you have new life.
~Romans 6:13 NLT

“Completely.”  Other translations say “yield.”  One thing I love to do on water is sail.  There are a whole set of rules governing who yields to who on the water.  Motor boats yield to sail boats because they’re more maneuverable.  Smaller boats yield to bigger boats.  And everybody yields to freighters!  A freighter sometimes takes several miles to stop or turn.  You can’t half-yield with a freighter.  You can’t partially yield with a boat that takes a mile to stop.  You yield completely or you sink.  You yield ALL THE TIME: Yesterday, Today, Tomorrow!  In baptism we give ourselves completely to God.

At Sycamore Creek Church our mission is to ignite authentic life in Christ and fan it into an all-consuming flame.  When we say “authentic” we mean completely or all the time.  We’re not one way today and another way tomorrow.  When we say “all-consuming” we mean not just one part of the pie belongs to God, but God is the filling throughout all the pie.

We live this mission with three values: Curious, Creative, and Compassionate.  When we say “Curious” we mean that your questions are welcome.  You don’t have to have it all figured out to join in.  You will never have all your questions answered to give yourself completely to God.  Curiosity is welcome.  When we say “Creative” we mean that we experiment with new ways to reach new people.  And when we say “Compassionate” we mean that no matter who you are, where you’ve been, what you’ve done, or where we meet you we’ll do our best to show you God’s compassion, completely.

Those being baptized today are BEGINNING a life of giving themselves completely to God.

2 Beginnings in Baptism: Live a New Life

The second beginning in baptism is BEGINNING to live a new life.  Paul says:

For we died and were buried with Christ by baptism. And just as Christ was raised from the dead by the glorious power of the Father, now we also may live new lives.
~Romans 6:4 NLT

We live new lives by choosing a new master.  Do you know that we all serve something?  Paul reminds us of this:

Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey?
~Romans 6:16 NLT

Bernard Shaw says that “Hell is where you must do what you want to do.”  Or as another writer has said, we are all struggling with the “tyranny of our own desires” (Willimon & Hauerwas, Resident Aliens).  We are slave to our desires, to our stomachs, to our sex drives, to our emotions, to our fashion, to our philosophy, or to our group.  Yet in Christ, Paul reminds us that something new begins:

Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.
~Romans 6:18 NLT

“Slave to righteous living”?   What does that mean?  I think it means that we’re now serving a new master and that service leads to the life well-lived.  You become fully who God has called and created you to be. Irenaeus, a second century church leader, says, “The glory of God is a human fully alive.” Who is the most fully alive human?  Jesus was the most fully alive human.  He lived with complete allegiance and devotion to God.  Sin had no hold over him.  His perfect life gave the most glory to God!

But who is Jesus?  Christians believe that Jesus was not just a great guy.  He was not just a “fully realized” human being.  Jesus wasn’t just a prophetic voice.  Those being baptized today will confess an ancient creed, a set of statements about what they believe and who they trust.  The Apostles’ Creed has three parts:

  1. I believe and trust in God
  2. I believe and trust in Jesus Christ, God’s only son.
  3. I believe and trust in the Holy Spirit.

Jesus was fully God and fully human.  Humans were the ones who were stuck in the power of sin and God was the only one who could break the power of sin.  So God became a human in Jesus.  Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection heals, forgives, and sets us free.  Jesus is able to heal, forgive and set us free because of who he is: the Son of God.  When we are baptized we join in Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection.

To understand how baptism works and what baptism is, let’s think about water for a moment.  What is water?  Water is death.  People die in water.  Today those being baptized die to multiple allegiances.  Water is birth.  We think about the waters of the womb.  Baptism is rebirth and new life.  Water is cleansing.  We wash our bodies in water.  Baptism is a washing and cleansing and forgiveness.  Water is a renewal of life.  We can go three weeks without food but only three days without water.  Baptism is renewal of life.  Water is protection.  We build motes around castles to protect us from danger.  You can only go three hours in a harsh environment without shelter.  Baptism is the protection of the Holy Spirit.  Water is fun.  We play in and with water.  Baptism is joining God’s fun adventure.  Water is community.  We always build cities by or near water.  Baptism is the door to the church, the family and mission of God.

When we are baptized we terminate our changing allegiances and sin’s control over us dies.  When we are baptized we begin giving ourselves completely to God and living a new life.

I want to invite those being baptized or reaffirming their baptism to come forward and join me in making these commitments:

To the parents and candidates
Tom: Do you seek to avoid evil and do good?
Parents/Candidates: I do.

Tom: Do you confess Jesus as Savior and Lord in community with the church?
Parents/Candidates: I do.

Tom: Will you stay in love with God?
Parents/Candidates: By God’s grace, I will

Tom: Do you believe in God?
Parents/Candidates:
I believe in God, the Father almighty, Creator of heaven and earth.

Tom: Do you believe in Jesus Christ?
I believe in Jesus Christ, His only Son, our Lord.
He was conceived by the power of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary.
He suffered under Pontius Pilate, was crucified, died, and was buried.
He descended to the dead.
On the third day He rose again.
He ascended into heaven, and is seated at the right hand of the Father.
He will come again to judge the living and the dead.

Tom: Do you believe in the Holy Spirit?
I believe in the Holy Spirit,
the holy Catholic Church,
the communion of saints,
the forgiveness of sins,
the resurrection of the body,
and life everlasting. Amen.

To parents
Tom: Will you along with the church nurture these children by teaching and example guiding them to accept God’s grace for themselves when they are able?
Parents: I will.

To the church
Tom: Do you as the body of Christ, the church, reaffirm your own desire to avoid evil, do good, and stay in love with God?
Church: We do.

Tom: Do you commit to connecting with God and one another, growing in the character of Christ, and serving the church, community and world?
Church: We do.

Tom: Will you nurture one another and these new partners and members of the family of God in the Christian faith and life, and surround them with a community of love and forgiveness?
Church: We will.

Confirmation (for those reaffirming their faith) & Anointing with Oil
When they come up out of the water…
Tom: NAME, the Lord defend you with his heavenly grace and by his Spirit confirm you in the faith and fellowship of all true disciples of Jesus Christ.
or
The Lord bless you, and keep you;
The Lord make his face to shine upon you, and be gracious to you.
The Lord lift up His countenance upon you,
and give you peace. Numbers 6: 24-26

Congregational Remembrance
Tom: Friends, remember your baptism and be thankful.

 

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Small Steps Toward Big Destruction

January 20, 2014 by Leave a Comment

samson

 

 

 

 

 

Samson – Small Steps Toward Big Destruction *
Sycamore Creek Church
Tom Arthur
January 19/20, 2014
Judges 16

Peace friends!

Today we continue in a series exploring the life of Samson, one of the strongest men who ever lived on the earth.  We’re applying the lessons to the men around us, but many of the principles are true for women too.  And women can also learn more about the men in their lives so that they know better how to partner with and pray for them.

Samson was chosen by God before he was even born to deliver his people, the Israelites, from their enemies, the Philistines.  He was called a “judge” in his day, and a “judge” was kind of like a tribal leader.  He had so much potential but he wasted it away on lust, entitlement, and pride.  We learned the last two weeks that Samson was:

  1. An incredibly strong man with a dangerously weak will (Satan likes to make strong men weak, but God makes weak men strong).
  2. Emotion driven, not Spirit-led (when a man lets his deepest need drive him to God, God meets his deepest need).

Samson led Israel for 20 years, a very long time.  So how can a man with so much potential, end up so poorly?  Here’s a key thought for the day:

Samson didn’t mess up his life all at once, he did it one step at a time.

Let’s see how Samson’s life plays out one step at a time.  We read:

One day Samson went to Gaza, where he saw a prostitute. He went in to spend the night with her.
Judges 16:1 NIV

Here we go.  One day.  What happened one day?  Here’s what happened.  Samson walked to Gaza.  Gaza is the headquarters of the Philistines and is 25 miles from his hometown.  25 miles.  To walk 25 miles would take 56,250 steps.  That’s 56,250 steps to destruction.  56,250 opportunities to stop.

No guy starts out saying, “In ten years I want to be a sex addict, obsessed in a fantasy world that is destroying my real world.”  It begins one day with a step: seeing an ad on Facebook.  Step.  Clicking the ad through to a youtube video.  Step.  Picking up the SI swimsuit issue.  Step.  Going a little deeper with softcore porn.  Step.  Going further with hardcore porn.  Step.  Consuming porn all…the…time.  STEP!

No guy starts out saying, “I want to go broke and bankrupt and have to beg for bucks.”

It begins one day with a step: a daily $4 coffee on the credit card.  Step.  Buying a new car.  Step.  Buying a boat.  Step.  Taking out a second mortgage.  Step.  Gambling to try to fix it all quick.  Step.  Deciding to start a new business when he can’t even balance his own check book.  Step.  Bankrupt.  STEP!

No guy starts out saying, “I want to destroy my marriage and my family.”  It begins one day with a step: looking up an old girlfriend on Facebook.  Step.  Sending a text.  Step.  Getting together for lunch.  Step.  A hug to say goodbye.  Step.  Jumping in bed.  Step.  Adultery that destroys your marriage.  STEP!

Today we’re going to explore three steps to Samson’s destruction.

Taunting the Enemy
When the Philistines realize that Samson is among them at Gaza they make plans to capture him, but he leaves early in the morning and eludes their trap.  But escaping isn’t enough for Samson.  He has to insult them in the process.  So he rips the doors of the city off their hinges and puts them on a hill for all to see.  This is no small feat.  This isn’t the hollow core door to your bedroom.  The doors to a city were massively reinforced to keep battering rams from breaking in.  These things probably weighed 700 or more pounds!  It’s like Samson is flipping off his enemies.  He’s taunting them and underestimating them.

Friends, too often we taunt and underestimate the enemy.  We read in scripture that the enemy of God is out to steal, kill, and destroy and is roaring around like a lion seeking someone to devour (John 10:10).  And we pretend that it’s like we’re at the zoo with a powerful cage between us and that lion, so we taunt our enemies.

One day I taunted and seriously underestimated my opponent.  I was with my roommate from college, Greg, and my new girlfriend, Sarah, soon to be wife.  For some reason, I don’t exactly remember why, I decided to wrestle my roommate.  I do know why.  I was trying to impress Sarah!  And when you’re trying to impress a girl the blood isn’t always flowing to the right parts of the brain.  The blood was definitely not flowing to the right part of my brain in that moment, because Greg was not someone you wanted to wrestle with.  He was a farm boy from Wisconsin.  He grew up wrestling steer into submission and throwing bails of hay onto trucks.  The man was and still is cut out of stone.  He is the first real person I saw up close and personal who had a real six-pack ab.  Not only this but Greg’s primary sport in high school was wrestling!  So what was I thinking trying to impress my girl by wrestling with my roommate?  He took me down in less than two seconds and held me there long enough to really let the embarrassment set in.  It’s the last time I tried to impress Sarah with my physical prowess, or lack thereof.  Thankfully Greg was not really out to steal, kill and destroy me.  He was my friend after all.  But he wasn’t going to let me score a quick point with my girlfriend at his expense.

Friends, too often we treat our enemy the way I treated Greg.  We put ourselves in tempting situations and underestimate and taunt the enemy.  We struggle with lust and then we go hang out in our girlfriend’s room.  We are married but we go out to a club on a business trip out of town.  (Side note: do you know that research has shown that most affairs are not caused by marital strife or marital dissatisfaction.  Most affairs are caused by opportunity!  It’s the affair that causes the marital strife and dissatisfaction. Read more here: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/201206/promise-promiscuity).  We’re taunting the enemy.  We know that our family has a history of alcoholism but we decide one drink won’t hurt.  Then two.  Then three.  Then four.  Then five, and we’re smashed.  We don’t really have the money to buy a new car, but we go walk around the car lot “just window shopping.”  The first car I bought in my marriage was bought when I went to just look on the lot.  I didn’t plan to buy a car that day, but I got hooked.  Paul reminds us:

So if you think you are standing, watch out that you do not fall.
1 Corinthians 10:12 NRSV

Friends, don’t taunt the enemy.  Don’t underestimate the pitfall.  Stay humble.

Rationalizing the Same Old Sin
So far we’ve encountered two Philistine women in Samson’s life.  The first we read about last week was someone he wanted to marry.  It didn’t go well for anyone involved.  The second we just read about was a Philistine prostitute.  Two Philistine women and we haven’t even gotten to the most well known Philistine woman: Delilah.  But she’s about to come on the scene, and this is the third time that Samson is messing around with a Philistine woman.  (Side note: the issue here is not the difference in race.  There is no command in the Bible not to marry interracially.  The problem is that the Philistines worship another God.  The problem is a faith problem, not a race problem.)  So we read:

After this he fell in love with a woman in the valley of Sorek, whose name was Delilah.
Judges 16:4 NRSV

Too many of us say, “This is my one thing…This is no body’s business…I’m not hurting anyone…I’m always just looking…Nobody will find out.”  I have a friend who told me the other day that when he first got married he would go to the gym and take his ring off.  He took his ring off because there was this cute girl who was there at the gym, and he wanted to make sure he still had “it” even though he was now hitched.  So he flirted a little here and there, and it worked.  She asked him out.  Whoa!  She asked out a married guy she didn’t even know was married.  The problem here isn’t her problem.  The problem is with my friend.  He wanted to see if he still had it, and he deceived this young woman in order to meet his own needs of insecurity.  Thankfully he manned up to the situation and told her he was married, but the damage was already done.  He was taunting the enemy.

Back to Samson:

The lords of the Philistines came to [Delilah] and said to her, “Coax him, and find out what makes his strength so great, and how we may overpower him, so that we may bind him in order to subdue him; and we will each give you eleven hundred pieces of silver.”
Judges 16:5 NRSV

So she goes to Samson and asks to know his secret.  He tells her three different lies to the source of his strength: straps, ropes, and a pin in his hair.  Each time she binds him in the way that he says and the Philistines rush in to attack him, and he breaks out of the binding and beats them.  The third time he gets pretty close to telling the truth but not quite.  It’s like he’s walking up to the line but not crossing.

What amazes me is he keeps this game up.  The first time he tells her a secret and she shares it.  He does it again.  She shares the secret.  He does it again.  She shares the secret.  When will he learn?  Too late.

Then she said to him, “How can you say, ‘I love you,’ when your heart is not with me? You have mocked me three times now and have not told me what makes your strength so great.”  Finally, after she had nagged him with her words day after day, and pestered him, he was tired to death.
Judges 16:15-16 NRSV 

Samson was strong enough to kill a thousand men, lift a 700 pound door, slay a lion, but wasn’t strong enough to lead a woman.  Men don’t just be strong in business, hobbies, and sports but be strong leading people to God.  Be strong in righteousness, right relationships with God, with others, and with yourself.  Samson doesn’t have it.  He tells her his true secret:

So he told her his whole secret, and said to her, “A razor has never come upon my head; for I have been a Nazirite to God from my mother’s womb. If my head were shaved, then my strength would leave me; I would become weak, and be like anyone else.”
Judges 16:17 NRSV

It’s kind of like he’s remembering for a moment who he was created to be: A Nazarite dedicated to God to save his people from their enemies.  He was dedicated from before birth!  Who were you created to be?  What gifts, passion, and callings are on your life to bring glory to God?  You were made to have a purpose, even several purposes.  You were made for more than just lust, entitlement, and pride.  Samson gives away what he was made for for the same old sin.

She let him fall asleep on her lap; and she called a man, and had him shave off the seven locks of his head. He began to weaken, and his strength left him.
Judges 16:19 NRSV

There it is.  The enemy has him.  How many men out of disobedience of God are doing battle with their own strength and missing God’s strength?  Your strength has left you.  Samson’s “one vice”, his “one sin” catches up with him.

The Cost of Disobedience
So far we’ve looked at two steps that let to Samson’s destruction: he taunted and underestimated the enemy and he rationalized the same old sin.  The third step is this: he assumed his disobedience would never cost him.

Then she said, “The Philistines are upon you, Samson!” When he awoke from his sleep, he thought, “I will go out as at other times, and shake myself free.” But he did not know that the Lord had left him.
Judges 16:20 NRSV

Sometime your sin will catch up to you.  You’ll go to your wife, and she’ll say “That’s enough” and the marriage will be over.  You’ll promise your kids another empty promise (even if you really truly mean it this time), and they’ll say “That’s enough” and will give up on you.  You’ll go to your boss and apologize for not doing the work, and she’ll say, “That’s enough” and your job will be done.  Your sin will find you out.  There will be consequences.

We read about the consequences to Samson’s sin:

So the Philistines seized him and gouged out his eyes. They brought him down to Gaza and bound him with bronze shackles; and he ground at the mill in the prison.
Judges 16:21 NRSV

This didn’t happen all at once out of the blue.  It happened one small step at a time. Where are you stepping away from God?  Be honest.

No time in the Bible.  Step.
No time in prayer.  Step.
A sense of entitlement: I deserve this!  Step.
Giving in to lust: I want it!  Step.
Living in pride: I can handle it!  Step.
Blowing up in anger.  Step.
Apathetic to God.  Step.
Greed for more.  What you have is never enough.  Step.
Financial disobedience.  Not bringing the full tithe to God.  Step.

You are only as strong as you are honest!  How honest are you with God and those around you?  How honest are you with yourself?

So if you are stepping away from God in any way, what should you do?  Turn around!  Go the other way!  It’s not too late! It’s that simple!  Turn around.  When you turn around, who will be right there waiting for you?  God!  In God you will find grace.  Samson’s story isn’t over.  We read:

But the hair of his head began to grow again after it had been shaved.
Judges 16:22 NRSV

It is a sign of grace.  His hair begins to grow again.  That which gives you strength will grow again!  No matter how many steps down the road you have gone away from God, your life is not a waste.  Turn around and you will find God right there waiting for you and God’s grace will begin to grow your hair again.

God, may the men who hear this message not taunt and underestimate the enemy.  May the men who hear this message not become complacent in the same old sin.  May the men who hear this message not assume that their sin will have no consequence.  May the men who hear this message turn around and find you, and may your grace begin to grow their strength again.  In the name of Jesus and in the power of your Spirit at work in us.  Amen.

 

* This sermon and the series are based on a sermon series originally preached by Craig Groeschel.

 

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Why – Why do bad things happen to good people?

April 2, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Why Logo 1024x768

 

 

 

 

Why do bad things happen to good people?
Sycamore Creek Church
Easter Sunday – March 31, 2013
Easter Monday – April 1, 2013
Tom Arthur

God is good,
All the time!
All the time,
God is good!

Christ is risen!
He is risen indeed!

The answer to the question, Why do bad things happen to good people, hinges on these two truths:

  1. God is good.
  2. God raised Jesus from the dead.

Today on Easter Sunday, we begin a new series called Why?  We’re going to explore the questions that keep you up at night, the questions that you lay in bed thinking about, the deep and hard questions of life.  Today we’re beginning with the question: Why do bad things happen to good people?

There are lots of Why? questions like this that are out there.  For example:

  1. Why did children die at Sandy Hook?
  2. Why did Katrina have to kill so many people?
  3. Why do people die from hunger every day?
  4. Why are so many people out of work?

Then there are lots of Why? questions  that are not just out there but have to do with me, with each one of us.  For example:

  1. Why am I so lonely?
  2. Why did I lose my job?
  3. Why did my spouse leave me?
  4. Why don’t I have enough money at the end of the month?
  5. Why is my family so messed up?
  6. Why was I abused?
  7. Why am I suffering mental illness?

Taylor Swift sings a powerful song asking the question: Why do bad things happen to good people.  It’s called Ronan, and it’s about a little boy who died too early.  One of the verses says:

I remember the drive home
When the blind hope turned to crying and screaming “Why?”
Flowers pile up in the worst way, no one knows what to say
About a beautiful boy who died

So why do bad things happen to good people?  I can’t in any way pretend that I can answer every possible question along these lines, and what I’d like to share today won’t cover every possible particular situation.  But I’d like to share with you some ways that Christians have wrestled with this question and some answers they have found in the Bible.  Each answer begins with the word “maybe” because, like I said, these are general ideas and may not fit your particular situation.  But they are some “maybes” that will help us to find a handhold or hook to place an answer on.  So let’s begin: Why do bad things happen to good people?

A Broken Sin-Stained World
Maybe bad things happen to good people because we live in a broken sin-stained world.  What is sin?  Most of have an innate sense that the world is not quite right.  Most of us have a longing that the world would be more just, more loving, more right than it is.  “Sin” is the term Christians use to describe the world as it.  God created the world and called it good.  But the world misses the mark of what God intended.  Sometimes this is intentional, and other times it’s unintentional.  Sin is like a train that has run off the tracks.  Sin is like a weight that burdens us down.  Sin is like an overwhelming debt that can never be repaid.

While God created the world and all that is in it good, including humanity, we rebelled against God.  We fell away.  The results of this running away from God were a broken world, a world that didn’t work the way God intended or created it to work.  And so we live in a broken sin-stained world.

Jesus had a sense of the trials that we would face in this broken sin-stained world.  He said:

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows.
John 16:33 NLT

Did you catch that?  Jesus said we’ll have many trials and sorrows.  We can expect it in this world.  This isn’t always because you sinned.  Sometimes it’s because you’re the victim of someone else’s sin.  My wife occasionally says that she’s married to a thirteen-year-old-boy.  Exhibit A took place on one of our first vacations as husband and wife.  Sarah was driving us down the highway, and I was navigating with the map in the passenger side seat.  I don’t really remember what caused the argument, but pretty soon I was ripping up the map into little shreds and throwing it out the window!  This did not help us get where we wanted to go, and it did not help our marriage either.  Now why did this bad thing happen to a wonderfully good person like my wife?  Why did she end up marrying a thirteen-year-old trapped in an adult’s body?  Because she married a broken sin-stained man.  And if you ask her, she’ll tell you that I married a broken sin-stained woman.  Maybe bad things happen to good people because we live in a broken sin-stained world.

Reap What You Sow
Maybe bad things happen to good people because you brought it on yourself.  There are some natural consequences to our actions when we don’t act as God intended us to act.  There are some direct consequences.  If you have an affair, it will hurt your marriage.  If you lie to your boss and he or she finds out, it will not go well with you at work.  If you hit your child, you will have a lot of hard work to do to regain a lot of people’s trust.

St. Paul says in his letter to the Galatians:

Do not be deceived; God is not mocked, for you reap whatever you sow.
Galatians 6:7 NRSV

You reap what you sow.  I recently came across a set of pictures on the internet titled, Why Men Die First.  When you look at them, you see that the men in these pictures are putting themselves in some pretty precarious situations.  I can imagine the tragic end of their decisions meeting with the pronouncement: “He chose poorly.”

http://rense.com/general95/whymen.html

Maybe bad things happen to good people because they chose poorly and brought it upon themselves.

Something Big
Maybe bad things happen to good people because God wants to do something big in your life.  Now let me be very careful here.  I do not intend to say that everything that happens happens for a reason.  I have preached against that way of thinking.  When we say that everything happens for a reason, I think we end up making God a monster.  We end up saying that God wanted Sandy Hook to happen so that something else would happen.  I think that is about as far from the truth as is possible.  God cried with us on the day those children and teachers lost their lives.  And yet, I do think that sometimes God allows things to happen in our lives because God wants to do something big in your life.  Not all bad things happen for this reason, but maybe sometimes they do.

Let me give you an example from the Bible.  Jesus and his followers were walking along the road one day when they came across a blind man.  Jesus’ followers asked Jesus if this man was blind because of something his parents did (something bad happened to him because we live in a broken sin-stained world) or because of something he did (he brought it upon himself).  Jesus didn’t like either of those options.

Jesus answered, “Neither this man nor his parents sinned; he was born blind so that God’s works might be revealed in him.”
John 9:3 NRSV

Maybe it happened because he was the victim of someone else?  No. Maybe it happened because he reaped what he sowed? No.  It happened to bring God glory.  Then Jesus healed him of his blindness.

God often uses the lowest parts of our life to work the biggest work in our life.  Why?  Because it is at the lowest moments that we are willing to give up trust in ourselves and put our trust in God.  James, Jesus’ brother gets at this very hard truth when he writes:

My brothers and sisters,whenever you face trials of any kind, consider it nothing but joy, because you know that the testing of your faith produces endurance; and let endurance have its full effect, so that you may be mature and complete, lacking in nothing.
James 1:2-4 NRSV

After twenty-four hours of labor, Micah, our son, just wouldn’t come out.  I’ll never forget our doctor, Amanda Shoemaker saying to Sarah, “I love you and I have to hurt you.”  Sometimes God loves us and has to hurt us, or at least allow us to get hurt.

One of the most amazing stories I’ve heard of something like this is the story of Beck Weathers.  Beck was part of what became known as the Mount Everest Disaster of 1996.  That year eight people died trying to scale the highest mountain in the world.  A freak snow storm moved in and guides and climbers made some very bad decisions.  In the midst of this was a doctor from Texas who was so badly hurt in the “death zone” (the altitude at which it is impossible to rescue someone) that he was left for dead…twice.  Here’s a brief clip from the Imax movie Everest to tell the story.

Beck had his “right arm amputated halfway between the elbow and wrist. All four fingers and the thumb on his left hand were removed, as well as parts of both feet. His nose was amputated and reconstructed with tissue from his ear and forehead.”  In his book Left for Dead, Beck answers an interesting question: Would he do it again?  Here’s what he says:

“The other most common thing people ask me is whether I’d do it again.  At first I’d think, What a stupid question!  But as I considered at length, I realized that this is one of the deeper questions to be asked.  The answer is: Even if I knew exactly everything that was going to happen to me on Mount Everest, I would do it again.  That day on the mountain I traded my hands for my family and my future.  It is a bargain I readily accept.”

Beck had been a workaholic.  His marriage was in tatters.  He was on a course of losing his family.  Losing several parts of his body on Mt.Everest shocked him in to reflecting on what was really important in life.  It not only shocked him, but it also gave him the motivation to make some real changes.  He now looks back on those tragic moments as a moment when big changes in his life happened.  Maybe bad things happen to good people because God wants to do something big in your life.

Wrong Question
Why do bad things happen to good people?  Maybe there is something fundamentally wrong with the question.  Here’s the problem with the question from a Christian perspective.  There are no “good” people.  If you’re not a Christian, and you’re reading me saying this, you may not be used to thinking in these terms.  Christians believe that we’re all broken.  We’ve all got a will bent in on itself.  We’re all fundamentally selfish.

Maybe “bad” isn’t quite the right word, but “sinful.”  We miss the mark as I said earlier.  This is the case even from birth.  Just hang out with a toddler for any amount of time and you’ll see that selfish inward bent of all humanity.  St. Paul says:

All have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.
Romans 3:23 NRSV

It takes being honest with yourself to get to this conclusion.  Ask yourself: What are my interior motives?  How do I manipulate language to make myself look a little bit better than I am?  Psychologists call this the self-serving bias.  When asked, “90% of business managers and more than 90% of college professors rated their performance as superior to that of their average peer.”  Something doesn’t add up.  About half of us do not have a very accurate (humble) self picture.  For example, my own tendency is to sit on the couch and let my wife handle the fussy kid, meanwhile internally criticizing her for how she’s doing it!  We all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.

Maybe the right question should be: Why do good things happen to bad people?  This past Thursday our church gathered for a celebration of Maundy Thursday (the day when we remember Jesus washing his disciples’ feet) in the local QD Laundromat to hand out free quarters to whoever showed up.  Why did a bunch of sinful people get together to hand out free money to other sinful people?  Why did sinful people do good stuff to sinful people?

Christians believe that there was only one time when something bad happened to a good person.  It was the day that the world encountered perfect love in Jesus and ended up killing him.  Why did that happen?  Here’s why.

We were created in the image of God to be in friendship with God.  That image was corrupted by sin (missing the mark of God’s plan for us), the friendship with God was broken, and one result was that death (literal but especially spiritual) entered the world.  The only one who could restore the image and thus, the friendship, was the one who fashioned and created the image to begin with, Jesus Christ, the Word of God, the perfect image of God the Father.  Like a portrait that has been corrupted, the artist did not throw away the painting (for he loved his creation), but had the perfect model of the image, Jesus, sit again for the portrait to be renewed.  So Jesus became human to restore the image of God within each of us.  But the power of death needed to be broken for that image to be completely restored, so when the sin in the world demanded that he die, he willingly gave his life.  And yet, he overcame death when God raised him from the dead!

When we read earlier that Jesus promised us trials and sorrows, we didn’t finish the verse.  Here’s what the rest of it says:

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.
John 16:33 NLT

Christ is risen!  He is risen indeed!
God is good, all the time!  All the time, God is good!

There are two extremes that people go to in responding to this Good News.  The first is to say, “I am a good person.  Why do I need Jesus?”  Until you realize your own responsibility in contributing to a broken world, you will never fully understand God’s love.  Open your heart to the conviction of God and confess your own brokenness, your own willful sin to God.

The second extreme in responding to the Good News of Jesus is to say, “I have sinned too much.  Why would God love me?”  Hear in your heart today that God’s love is given freely, that Jesus gave himself willingly for you, that he loved you so much that he was willing to conquer even death, so that no matter who you are, where you’ve been, or what you’ve done God loves you and desires a friendship with you. Why?  Because God loves you and there is nothing you can do about it!

Prayer
God, help me to recognize my need for your Son, Jesus, today.  Help me to see how my own sin contributes to this broken sin-stained world.  Forgive me.  God, help me to receive the love that you have shown me in your Son, Jesus.  Help me to know that you love me unconditionally.  Restore in me our friendship that you desire and created me for so that I might be a healing presence in this broken sin-stained world.  In the name of Jesus and in the power of your Holy Spirit.  Amen.

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Baggage Claim – Sexual Baggage

March 5, 2013 by Leave a Comment

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Baggage Claim – Sexual Baggage
Sycamore Creek Church
March 3 & 4, 2013
Tom Arthur

Peace Friends!

Today we wrap up a series looking at claiming our baggage and knowing what to do with it once we’ve claimed it.  We began with family baggage, spent two weeks on divorce baggage, and today we finish with sexual baggage.

It’s worth taking a moment and remembering what I’ve meant when I use the term baggage.  Baggage almost always has something to do with sin.  Sin is missing God’s will for our lives.  When we miss the mark God has set for us, we sin, and when we sin we feel guilty.  That guilt is baggage.  The way we deal with it is we confess it and then we do whatever we can to make things right.  But sometimes we confess our sin and guilt persists.  That persistent guilt is baggage.  Or perhaps someone has sinned against us and left in us scars and memories that won’t go away.  That’s baggage too.

We all accumulate baggage over time.   Think about the most saintly person you know.  They’ve got a past that includes some baggage.  Think about the worst sinner you know.  In Christ they have a future.  Every saint has a past and every sinner has a future.  You can’t do anything to change your past, but Christ can change your future.  Jesus can take your baggage and create something new from it.

This isn’t a series of judgment and condemnation.  But it is a series of truth telling.  We’re telling the truth about ourselves.  And when we tell the truth about ourselves, then we have the opportunity for real and true compassion and mercy.  Truth telling and mercy aren’t mutually exclusive.  They actually walk hand in hand.

Throughout this series we’ve tried to follow the example of Jesus who was presented with a woman caught in adultery.  The crowd wanted to know what Jesus would do to her.  Would he stone her as the law required?  Jesus bent down and began writing in the dirt.  As he wrote, each person in the crowd began to leave one by one.  Then we read:

Jesus straightened up and said to her, “Woman, where are they?  Has no one condemned you?”  She said, “No one sir,” And Jesus said, “Neither do I condemn you.  Go your way, and from now on do not sin again.”
John 8:10-11 NRSV

Jesus tells the truth about the woman when he says, “Go and do not sin again.”  But he shows her compassion and mercy in the midst of it when he says, “I don’t condemn you.”  So we take that same attitude today and we turn it toward the sexual baggage that we all claim.

I know you all think that because I’m a pastor that I’ve got no sexual baggage.  Well, you would be wrong.  In my premarried days I didn’t always save sexual intimacy for marriage.  That guilt persists at times with me today.  I grew up in a church that at times seemed to think that the only sin a teenager could commit was to not save sex for marriage.  I internalized that and so I carry around some persistent guilt even today from decisions I made before I was married.

One area that I particularly struggled with was pornography.  I’m not sure it was “clinical” but I struggled mightily with a split personality between my private viewing of pornography and my public persona of being a leader in my youth group at church.  One day I felt so guilty about this that I felt compelled to go talk to my youth pastor and resign from my leadership roles because of my sin and hypocrisy.  So I met him in his office and confessed and “resigned” from my leadership positions.  Amazingly, he wouldn’t let me resign!  He told me that I was finally being honest about myself, something that a lot of teenage guys weren’t doing.  In that moment I met the joining together of telling the truth about myself and having mercy and compassion extended to me.

So what sexual baggage do you carry around with you?  Here’s some questions to get you thinking:

  1. Were you sexually active before marriage?
  2. Are you currently sexually active outside of marriage?
  3. Have you looked at porn in the last month?
  4. Have you been sexually abused?
  5. Are you satisfied with your current marital sexual intimacy?

All of these, and probably many more, can be ways we accumulate sexual baggage.  I can’t possibly hit on all of these in one message.  So here’s the problem I want to deal with today: We think that casual sex has no consequences.  We live in a sex-saturated culture that continually tells us we will only be satisfied when we have as many non-committal sexual encounters as possible.

I was recently listening to the NPR (National Public Radio) show, This American Life.  The host of the show, Ira Glass, was interviewing a guy about a decision he and his girlfriend made about their relationship to have a month-long “rumspringen” where they could have sex with as many people as they wanted.  “Rumspringen” is the time in the Amish culture when a teenager is given the opportunity to “sow their wild oats” before deciding whether to become Amish or not.  So the guy Ira Glass is interviewing tells the story of how he goes out and tries to sleep with as many women as possible in this month-long period.  The only problem is that he becomes emotionally attached to the women he’s sleeping with.  He can’t just have casual sex.  He bonds physically and emotionally with each woman he has sex with.  Then it’s over.

Of course, over time he learns how to not become emotionally attached, but this is something like taking a piece of tape and sticking it to one thing after another.  Over time, it won’t be sticky anymore because it’s being used in a way that it was not intended to be used.  After the 30-day period, he gets back together with his girlfriend and they decide they need ninety more days for their Rumspringen.  After the ninety days, they decide it’s over.  Did you see that coming?  Of course you did.  Because even if you’ve bought into the culture’s idea that casual sex has no consequences, when confronted with this situation, you know that the culture is lying.  Casual sex does have consequences.  You either bond with those you have sex with or you have so much bonding and breaking that you become emotionally numb to bonding and have to relearn how to bond with someone.

Let’s take a moment and look at what God’s plan is for sex.  We can find this laid out pretty clearly in the first book of the Bible, Genesis.  I find in the story of creation four purposes for sex.

Multiplying
When God creates humans, God blessed them and told them, “Multiply and fill the earth and subdue it” (Genesis 1:28 NLT).  Sex is about creating life.  We are made in the image of God and some of what that means is that we too can create living breathing intelligent life that is able to love and communicate and have a relationship with its creator.  That’s amazing!  Sex is in part for multiplying.

Companionship
When God made Adam he realized his creation was incomplete.  We read, And the LORD God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone.  I will make a companion who will help him” (Genesis 2:18 NLT).  Adam and Eve were created as companions to one another in a way that was mutually compatible.

Pleasure
Some Christians throughout history have seemed to make sex into some kind of obligation and duty you have to perform and along the way you’re supposed to try to ignore or even suppress the pleasure that it brings.  But that’s not the way that we read it in Genesis and many other parts of the Bible.  After God creates Eve for Adam, we read, “At Last!” Adam exclaimed, “She is part of my own flesh and bone!  She will be called ‘woman’ because she was taken out of a man” (Genesis 2:23 NLT).  My Hebrew professor at Duke liked to say that “At last!” was way too tame of a translation.  She liked to translate “At last!” as “Now that’s what I’m talking about!”  Adam is pleased with what he sees.  And of course both of them were.  They were both looking at one another butt naked in all their original human bodily perfection!

Unity
The author of Genesis sums this story up saying, This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one (Genesis 2:24 NLT).  Sex creates a bond of unity that goes so deep that the author of Genesis says they become one flesh.  That deep spiritual and physical unity is why Jesus says that if you divorce and remarry you may have dissolved the legal bond, but you can’t dissolve the unity bond that came through marriage and sex.  Thus, if you remarry, according to Jesus, you’re committing adultery because you can’t un-flesh the one flesh that comes through marriage and sex.  You’ll carry that other person around with you for the rest of your life.

So here’s the whole point of this message: sexual purity is intended for intimacy.  Multiplying, companionship, pleasure, and unity create an intimate bond that is nearly impossible to break.  We were built for intimacy, a bond between two people that excludes all others, and sex ultimately bonds us with another person.

When you have a life-long committed marriage that has experienced the birth of children, companionship, the pleasure of one another’s bodies, and the unity of becoming one flesh, you’ve got an exclusive bond of intimacy unlike any other.  But if you’ve slept around and moved from one relationship to another delighting in many bodies and birthing children with many partners and sought companionship with many, then you don’t have a unity that leads to intimacy because you’ve got a bond that has been shared with many people.

The writer who compiled the book of wisdom called Proverbs, expresses this truth about sex in this way:

Drink water from your own cistern, flowing water from your own well.  Should your springs be scattered abroad, streams of water in the streets?  Let them be for yourself alone, and not for sharing with strangers.  Let your fountains be blessed, and rejoice in the wife of your youth, a lovely deer, a graceful doe.  May her breasts satisfy you at all times; may you be intoxicated always by her love.

So God’s plan for sex is that it be saved for one person in a life-long commitment of marriage that creates an intimacy unlike any other.  Sexual purity is intended for intimacy.

So about this time now, if you’re like me, you’re looking at some sexual baggage that you’re carrying around with you.  It may be sexual baggage that is accumulated because you didn’t save sexual intimacy for marriage.  Or it could be sexual baggage you accumulated because someone stole that sexual intimacy from you.  I want to recognize the latter, but speak mostly of the former.  Here’s what I want you to do today:

  1. Stop ignoring sexual sin.
  2. Stop idolizing sexual sin.

Some of us have bought into the culture’s claim that casual sex has no consequences or that God’s plan for sexual purity being saved for the intimacy of marriage doesn’t apply to us.  We just ignore the sexual sin in our lives.  If you err in this direction,  then today I want you to stop ignoring the sexual sin in your life and recommit today to save sex for marriage.  It may take a massive reordering of your life to make that happen but I think in the long-run God will bless you for making that commitment to sexual purity.  Today receive God’s grace to live a transformed life.

Some of you err in the other direction.  You idolize sexual sin.  I fall in this category.  Because I grew up in a church that seemed to take sexual sin more seriously than just about every other sin, I really tend to beat myself up about this one area of sin.  I “idolize” it by making it worse than others.  But sin is sin, and we’re all sinners.  Today, receive God’s mercy and forgiveness and know that God can take that baggage of guilt from you.

In the book of Luke, we read about Jesus encountering a prostitute amidst a religious leader, Simon’s home-party.  Simon isn’t very happy about this woman showing up at his party and is even less thrilled about how Jesus is treating her.  We read:

Then turning toward the woman, he said to Simon, “Do you see this woman?  I entered your house; you gave me no water for my feet, but she has bathed my feet with her tears and dried them with her hair.  You gave me no kiss, but from the time I cam in she has not stopped kissing my feet.  You did not anoint my head with oil, but she has anointed my feet with ointment.  Therefore, I tell you, her sins, which were many, have been forgiven; hence she has shown great love.  But the one to whom little is forgiven, loves little.
Luke 7:44-47

Jesus shows compassion to the woman who had sexual baggage, while he seems more than a little put off by the self-righteous religious leader.  Baggage of any kind, including sexual baggage, draws us to the feet of Jesus where we meet both truth and mercy.  We then lay the baggage at the foot of the cross.

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Prayers That Stick – DUH

April 2, 2012 by Leave a Comment

Prayers that Stick

Prayers That Stick – DUH (Psalms of Confession)
Sycamore Creek Church
April 1, 2012
Tom Arthur
Psalm 32

DUH Friends!

This past week I found myself facing something of a trial.  I was throwing my own little pity party and saying to myself, “I deserve better than this.  I shouldn’t have to deal with this.  People should make my life easy.”  I was driving down the road speaking this way to myself when I heard more clearly than I’ve heard in a long time, “Who promised you a trial-free life?  Jesus certainly didn’t have one.”  DUH!  The next morning as I was writing in my journal and examining myself for sin, I realized the sin I had fallen into: pride.  Pride is a tricky sin.  It’s subtle and hard to notice, but pride basically tells us a lie.  Pride tells us that we’re something that we’re not.  Humility is telling the truth about yourself.  So in my journal I confessed my pride to God.

Today we continue a series called, Prayers that Stick.  We’re looking at the book of Psalms which is basically a book of all kinds prayers in the form of poetry.  These aren’t the kind of prayers that feel shallow.  They’re prayers that stick with you for a long time.  They’re prayers that are worth sticking in your memory by memorizing them.  They’re prayers that we believe stick with God too.  So far we’ve looked at prayers of praise, prayers of wonder and awe, prayers of lament and cursing, and today we look at prayers of confession.

It’s a good time to consider confession.  It’s a good time to confess.  Well, actually any time is a good time to confess, but today is Palm Sunday and it begins the week leading up to Easter called Holy Week.  This week ends the 40 days of Lent in which we prepare ourselves for Easter.  Part of that preparation is confession.  I’ve picked Psalm 32 to help us do that this morning.  Admittedly, Psalm 32 is more a psalm about confession than a psalm of confession, but I think we’ll still learn something that will stick with us.  So let’s begin with Psalm 32.

Psalm 32 NLT

Oh, what joy for those
whose rebellion is forgiven,
whose sin is put out of sight!
Yes, what joy for those
whose record the LORD has cleared of sin,
whose lives are lived in complete honesty!

When I refused to confess my sin,
I was weak and miserable,
and I groaned all day long.
Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.
Interlude

Finally, I confessed all my sins to you
and stopped trying to hide them.
I said to myself, “I will confess my rebellion to the LORD.”
And you forgave me! All my guilt is gone.
Interlude

Therefore, let all the godly confess their rebellion to you while there is time,
that they may not drown in the floodwaters of judgment.
For you are my hiding place;
you protect me from trouble.
You surround me with songs of victory.
Interlude

The LORD says, “I will guide you along the best pathway for your life.
I will advise you and watch over you.
Do not be like a senseless horse or mule
that needs a bit and bridle to keep it under control.”

Many sorrows come to the wicked,
but unfailing love surrounds those who trust the LORD.
So rejoice in the LORD and be glad, all you who obey him!
Shout for joy, all you whose hearts are pure!

Thank you God for Psalm 32!

Did you notice that there were a lot of different ways to describe sin in the first couple verses of this psalm?  There are four kinds of sin according to Psalm 32:

32:1 Rebellion (pe-sha) – an active rebellion against God’s will;

32:1 Sin (hka-ta-ah) – un/intentionally missing the mark of God’s will;

32:2 Sin/Iniquity (a-ohn) (guilt) – accumulated guilt from rebellion or missing the mark;

32:2 Deceit/honesty (ru-me-yah) – deceiving oneself and/or others.

When I look at this list of the ways to sin, I realize that there are a lot of different ways to sin just like there are at least four words to describe it.

When we commit these kinds of sin there are consequences.  We learn more about that as we keep reading the psalm.  In verse three we read about how unconfessed sin tears us apart inside, and how God doesn’t leave us alone but convicts us of this sin:

When I refused to confess my sin,
I was weak and miserable,
and I groaned all day long.
Day and night your hand of discipline was heavy on me.
My strength evaporated like water in the summer heat.

In the end we’re left without much strength, perhaps physical, emotional, or spiritual strength.

When I was working at another church, we had a copier that you really weren’t supposed to put card stock through it.  It was apparently bad for the machine.  But I needed something printed on card stock and decided to run it through it anyway.  As I was doing this the secretary walked up and noticed I was using the machine in a way I shouldn’t be using it.  So what did I do?  I lied.  Yes, I was working at a church, and I lied.  I told her that I didn’t know that I wasn’t supposed to do it.  Active rebellion.  DUH!

Well, over the rest of the day my conscience would not let me go.  My stomach was in knots.  Every time I saw her I felt like I had betrayed her trust.  I probably didn’t look any different on the outside, but on the inside I was being eaten up.  Finally I went to her, and I confessed.  I said, “Sue, I need to tell you something.  When you saw me putting card stock through the copy machine, and told me I wasn’t supposed to do that, I lied to you.  I told you I didn’t know, but I did know.  I’m sorry that I lied to you.  Will you forgive me?”  She was gracious and forgave me, and I felt the weight of the sin lifted off of me.  Thank you God!

What are all the kinds of ways you find yourself sinning and what is it doing to your physical, emotional, and spiritual strength?

Just in case you’re having a hard time coming up with ways that you’re sinning, there are several places in scripture where different writers list different sins.  That’s one of the benefits of daily Bible reading.  You learn how you’re life isn’t hitting the mark, and you’re given the grace of conviction so that you can confess those sins and be made right with God and others.  Here are some of those lists of sins to ponder and examine yourself:

Romans 1:29-31 NLT

Their lives became full of every kind of wickedness, sin, greed, hate, envy, murder, fighting, deception, malicious behavior, and gossip. They are backstabbers, haters of God, insolent, proud, and boastful. They are forever inventing new ways of sinning and are disobedient to their parents. They refuse to understand, break their promises, and are heartless and unforgiving.

Ephesians 5:3-4 NLT – Let there be no sexual immorality, impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God’s people. Obscene stories, foolish talk, and coarse jokes — these are not for you.

Colossians 3:5-9 NLT – So put to death the sinful, earthly things lurking within you. Have nothing to do with sexual sin, impurity, lust, and shameful desires. Don’t be greedy for the good things of this life, for that is idolatry…Now is the time to get rid of anger, rage, malicious behavior, slander, and dirty language. Don’t lie to each other…

1 John 2:16 NLT – For the world offers only the lust for physical pleasure, the lust for everything we see, and pride in our possessions. These are not from the Father. They are from this evil world.

Revelation 2:5 & 3:16 NLT – Look how far you have fallen from your first love…Since you are like lukewarm water, I will spit you out of my mouth!

Have we become Luke Warm?

When I look at that last one in Revelation, I regularly ask myself, have I become lukewarm?  Have I lost my first love?  Have I made anything else in my life more important than my love for God?  Sometimes, church, I wonder if we have not become a lukewarm church.  Here are some questions to ponder about whether we’ve become lukewarm or not:

  • Do you spend unhurried time daily with God? Or does God get your crumbs of time if even that?  If you’re too busy for this, then you’re too busy.  (I was talking with Jana Aupperlee earlier this week.  Jana is helping to lead the Run for God small group that is doing spiritual and physical training to prepare to run a 5K race.  She told me how she has been convicted in the past that she is able to find daily time for exercise and running but not always for God.  Are the rest of us like that?)
  • Do you seek counsel from other Christians in your spiritual walk?  Are you in some kind of small group?  Or are you a solo-Christian who thinks you can go it alone, that everyone else is wrong, crazy, and ignorant?
  • Do you give cheerfully? Do you give regularly and intentionally?  Do you give sacrificially?  Do you give from the first portion of what you receive?  Or do you give begrudgingly when you feel like it or not at all?
  • Do you serve cheerfully?  Or have your extracurricular activities so overcommitted you and your family that you serve only because we chase you down?  Do you serve only when it’s convenient for you?
  • Do you have an overflow of joy for inviting people to know Jesus in and through the community we call SCC?  Does your love for God and for this church naturally flow into your conversations with people around you?  Or is this whole church and Jesus thing just a game rather than life and death and eternity?  Have you taken the opportunity to invite three people to Easter seriously or do you brush that opportunity aside and ignore it?
  • Do you come to church with a bib on only to feed yourself, or do you come to church with a towel in hand so that you can help feed others?  Do you stick to the people you know on Sunday morning or are you regularly working on building community here at SCC with people you don’t know, especially guests among us?

Friends, if we are turning into a lukewarm church, then that’s something we need to pray to be convicted about, confess to God, and then do a U-turn and get going the other way.  But how do we confess?  What does a confession look like?  Psalm 32 provides some guidance.  Just like there were multiple words for sin, so too are there multiple words for confession.  We read about four ways to confess in verse 5:

1. I confessed (ya-da) – Made known;

2. I did not hide (ca-sah) – Uncover, only God can cover our guilt;

3. My iniquity (in the NLT it simply says “Them”, but literally the Hebrew says “a-ohn” or guilt) – Take responsibility, the guilt is mine;

4. I will confess (ya-dah) – Cast it off (and onto God).

So confession includes making the active rebellion, missing of the mark, guilt and deception known, uncovering it and putting it where it can be seen, taking responsibility, and casting it off of oneself (by God’s grace) onto God.

Usher, a contemporary R&B singer has a song called Confession.  In it he tells the story of how he cheated on his loved one and now his “chick on the side” is having his baby.  Here’s the lyrics to the song:

Chorus: These are my confessions
Just when I thought I said all I can say
My chick on the side said she got one on the way
These are my confessions

Verse 1: Now this gon’ be the hardest thing I think I ever had to do
Got me talkin’ to myself askin’ how I’m gon’ tell you
’bout that chick on part 1 I told ya’ll I was creepin’ with, creepin’ with
Said she’s 3 months pregnant and she’s keepin’ it
The first thing that came to mind was you
Second thing was how do I know if it’s mine and is it true
Third thing was me wishin’ that I never did what I did
How I ain’t ready for no kid and bye bye to our relationship

Is this a real confession?  It’s not bad, but somehow it feels forced to me.  It feels like he’s been backed into a corner and is looking for a way out. If he found it without confessing, I get the sense that he’d take that route.  If his “chick on the side” would have an abortion, then he wouldn’t have to confess.  If he found out the baby wasn’t his, then he could deny the accusation.  But for now, it appears that he’ll have to “man up” to it and confess.  I’d prefer for him to take more responsibility.  His confession could go something like this:

I have done wrong to you.
I have done what I should not have done.
I was unfaithful emotionally and sexually.
I would like to ask you to forgive me, but I expect that if the relationship continues, it will require a lot of hard work to repair the broken trust.
I am sorry for what I have done.

In the same way that there are several ways to sin and several ways to confess, there are several ways that God forgives us.  We read about these back in verse one and two:

32:1 – Our active rebellion is Forgiven (na-sa) – It is lifted up off of us.

32:1 – Our sin is Covered (ca-sa) – We uncovered it in confession and God covers it with forgiveness.  The verb here is passive.  God does the work.  We receive it.  Augustine says, that our “sins are buried in oblivion.”

32:2 – Our guilt is Cleared (hka-sha) – God does not count it in some heavenly ledger.

Interestingly there is no word for forgiveness that is paired with deceit.  Maybe that’s because deceit hinders us from making the sin known to begin with.

When I read about all these ways that God forgive us, an image comes to mind.  Many mornings I do exercise in my living room.  Micah, my sixteen-month-old son is usually running around at my feet.  He often wants to use all my exercise equipment: bands, pads, balls, and dumbbells.  I have one set of five pound dumbbells, that he can barely lift if at all.  The weight is way too heavy for him.  He is bent over by it.  But I can pick it up with ease.  I could easily throw it across the room.  The five pound weight is everything to Micah, but it is nothing to me.  Maybe our sin is to us and God what that five pound weight is to Micah and me.

If we begin to confess our sins in all their shapes, colors, textures, flavors, and styles, there are some new habits that we’ll be practicing.  Psalm 32 lists those new habits.  In verse eight of NLT we read “The LORD says, ‘I will guide you…”  But in the Hebrew the phrase “The LORD says” is not there.  The line of the psalm just begins with “I.”  Who is the I?  Obviously the NLT translation team thinks the “I” is God speaking.  I tend to disagree.  I think because its poetry that the I can be both God and the psalmist who is writing the psalm. Thus, not only does God guide us but the wisdom of those around us guides us too.  Verse eight goes on to list three things that this person does with us: guides us, advises us, and watches us.  In other words, we don’t do it alone.  We do it with God in community.  We share in the wisdom of those who have gone before us, and God gives us the grace and power not to do it again.

There are at least three ways I seek guidance from those around me.  First, I have a small group that I meet with regularly.  I don’t lead this small group.  I just show up and participate like any other person in the group.  Some of that participation includes  confessing my sins to them and seeking their guidance on how to make my relationship right with God and with the person I sinned against.  Second, I also have another pastor that I meet with regularly.  His name is Jon, and Jon is also my internet accountability partner.  I have a program called X3 on my computer that monitors what websites I visit.  It also runs on my cell phone.  Every two weeks it sends a report to Jon for us to discuss.  In this way I confess my true self to Jon.  Third, my wife, Sarah is a confession partner.  I regularly confess my sins, screw-ups, mistakes, and hang-ups to her.  In my better moments I even listen to what she has to say after I confess.

Who are the people who are guiding, advising, and watching you?

Psalm 32 draws a picture of the results of this kind of confession.  Our hiding place becomes God rather than hiding in sin.  The sorrow of sin, for sin itself is its own torment, disappears and is replaced with God’s unfailing love for us.  All of this can  simply be called joy.

Remember that sin of pride I told you I confessed to God in my journal earlier this week.  After I confessed it to God I sensed a kind of release from the weight of that pride, and some release from the anxiety of the trial.  I was given a new energy and enthusiasm to tackle the problem.  That’s what confession does.  DUH!

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The Big Story

February 14, 2012 by Leave a Comment

The Big Story.  I love this.  It includes creation and community as part of redemption.  This is an “update” of the classic “four spiritual laws”, which have been critiqued for having no description or need of the church and being very individualistic.  This is anything but individualistic.  Check it out…

 

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Off the Tracks – Corporate Sin

November 16, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Off the Tracks

Off the Tracks – Corporate Sin
Sycamore Creek Church
November 13, 2011
Tom Arthur
Romans 7:14-25

 

http://movieclips.com/CLEuG-unbreakable-movie-trailer-1/

It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong.
Romans 7:21 NLT

Peace, Friends!

 

Yeah, it seems a little odd to say “Peace” after a scene and verse like that, but peace is where we’re going today.  Keep that in mind as we look at how sin causes our lives to jump off the tracks.

When I was in seminary my first year before classes began, the school organized a community BBQ for students.  During this BBQ there was a wiffle ball tournament.  I grew up playing baseball, and thought this would be a fun way to meet people.  So I joined in the fun.  There was a slight problem though.  I didn’t have any fun.  I kept taking the game so seriously.  All the old habits that I had developed while playing baseball were still in my muscles.  No matter how much I said to myself, “Don’t take this so seriously,” I couldn’t step up to the plate and not get in my batting crouch.  I couldn’t ignore the year of private batting coaching I had in high school.  I couldn’t not swing the bat with everything I had.  And I couldn’t not run to first base at a full body and spirit sprint stretching my stride longer than usual to beat the throw to first base.  Well, I couldn’t not do it, but my body no longer could take it!  That first time I ran to first base, I pulled my groin.  Then as I was coming home at one point and saw the wiffle ball out of the corner of my eye I did a belly slide into home plate taking out the catcher.  I came home a mess, and I was so sore that while we lived only a ten-minute walk from campus, Sarah had to drive me into classes.  I limped through my first week of training to be a pastor.  All because I couldn’t get rid of the old habits of baseball that were still in me.

I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can’t make myself do right. I want to, but I can’t.
Romans 7:18 NLT

I think we’ve all experienced something like this.  We keep doing stuff that causes our lives to jump off the tracks.  No matter how hard we try or how many times we commit to change, we still go back to our old habits and practices that always end us up in the same place – off the tracks.

Off the Tracks

This kind of behavior shows up in some obvious ways like addictions.  We tell ourselves we’re going to quit smoking, but we just can’t stop.  We tell ourselves this is the last night I’m going to get drunk.  But then we do it again.  We tell ourselves that we’re never going to light up a joint again.  But then we do.

There are a lot of other not so obvious ways that we keep repeating old broken habits.  What about the way that we enter into relationships.  We keep being unfaithful.  We keep verbally abusing our spouse.  We keep thinking the next marriage will make it all better.  Or what about the various destructive ways that we talk to ourselves.  I’m no good.  No one loves me.  Or the destructive relationship we keep getting into.  We know that guy is no good for us, but we hook up anyway.  Or destructive eating habits.  Goodbye junk food.  Hello junk food.

Earlier this fall we ran a clearance sale on broken emotions.  We tell ourselves we won’t get angry again.  Then we lose our temper and blow up at the ones we love.  We tell ourselves we won’t get anxious or worry about that situation again.  But then we go home and rehearse it over and over throughout another night.

I’ve been a pastor now for almost two and a half years.  It has been an amazing two and a half years.  I’ve learned more about more people than I have ever known in my life.  You may think that that person sitting next to you has it all together; that they never struggle with this or that sin.  Well, I’m here to tell you that we’re all pretty messed up.  Myself included.  I never knew how really messed up we all are until I became a pastor.  All our lives are off the tracks.  All of us say we’ll make it right the next time, and then we don’t.  All of us.

Back on the Tracks

Today we’re continuing in this series called Off the Tracks.  The tracks are living at peace with God and others.  Sin is anything that causes our lives to jump off the tracks.  God is for peace, so God is against sin.  The big question is, how do we get back on the tracks? Last week I suggested that there are two basic steps to getting back on the tracks:

  1. Tell the truth about yourself.  Confess to God that your life is off the tracks.  Name the behavior, action, or attitude that has gotten you to this place.  Don’t try to pretend you’re something you’re not.
  2. Receive God’s lift of mercy and forgiveness.  If a train engine is off the tracks, it’s highly unlikely that it will get back on the tracks by itself.  It needs outside help. It needs an outside lift.  God lifts our lives back on the tracks when we confess our sin.  God forgives us.

If these are the two basic steps for getting back on the tracks, why do we keep falling off the tracks over and over again?  And how do we stay on the tracks in the future?  That’s what we want to look at today.

Paul, one of the writers of the New Testament, knows all about jumping off the tracks over and over again.  He describes this in his letter to the Romans.

Romans 7:14-25 NLT
The law is good, then. The trouble is not with the law but with me, because I am sold into slavery, with sin as my master. I don’t understand myself at all, for I really want to do what is right, but I don’t do it. Instead, I do the very thing I hate. I know perfectly well that what I am doing is wrong, and my bad conscience shows that I agree that the law is good. But I can’t help myself, because it is sin inside me that makes me do these evil things.

 

I know I am rotten through and through so far as my old sinful nature is concerned. No matter which way I turn, I can’t make myself do right. I want to, but I can’t. When I want to do good, I don’t. And when I try not to do wrong, I do it anyway. But if I am doing what I don’t want to do, I am not really the one doing it; the sin within me is doing it.

 

It seems to be a fact of life that when I want to do what is right, I inevitably do what is wrong. I love God’s law with all my heart. But there is another law at work within me that is at war with my mind. This law wins the fight and makes me a slave to the sin that is still within me. Oh, what a miserable person I am! Who will free me from this life that is dominated by sin?   Thank God! The answer is in Jesus Christ our Lord. So you see how it is: In my mind I really want to obey God’s law, but because of my sinful nature I am a slave to sin.

Paul describes a desperate but ultimately losing battle against the sin in our lives.  We want to do good, but we always end up doing bad.  Arghhh!  Christians have a term for this.  We call it “original sin.”  Original sin doesn’t refer to the first sin although it is easy to make that mistake.  Original sin means that humans are unable not to sin.  Our will is curved inward on itself.  We have a permanent lean in our lives toward sin.  Sin is a kind of power or force at work in us causing the train of our lives to continually jump the tracks.  Our train is damaged to begin with.  It’s like the little toy train we’ve been using for the logo for this series. If you look at the toy itself, you’ll see that the front wheel is broken.  The axel is broken so that the engine spins without turning the wheel.  This train is damaged from the get go.  That’s what original sin is.

Staying on the Tracks

But Christians don’t believe that original sin is the end of the story.  We believe that in our baptism, our “train” is made new, and we are given the freedom to not sin.  When we go under the water we die to ourselves, and when we come up out of the water, the tide of the war within us turns away from the enemy and toward Christ.  The only problem is that we have all these old habits that are continually pulling us back off the tracks.  It’s like we’re a butterfly with wings to fly, but we continue to act like a grounded caterpillar because that’s all we’ve known.

So the key to staying on the tracks is replacing old habits with new ones.  This is not a function of trying harder.  There is a significant difference between trying and training.  Trying is about telling yourself you’ll do better next time.  Training is about getting new habits in your muscles and mind.

Let me give you an example from my own life.  I have in the past been a very judgmental person.  I would look at someone and quickly size them up and fit them in a box and categorize them.  My boxes tended to be pretty simple: saint and sinner.  I didn’t see a lot of gray in between.  So if you met me on the street, I’d quickly decide which of those two boxes you fit in.  If you were in the saint box, then you were my friend.  If you were in the sinner box then I did my best to stay away from you.  Over time this habit of being judgmental has been transformed by being replaced with other new habits of patience, humility, discernment, and love.  Now I’m not saying I’m perfect.  In fact, my own judgmental attitude continues to creep up and surprise me and those around me from time to time.  But I jump off the tracks less often because of a judgmental attitude than I have in the past.  And it wasn’t so much because I focused on trying not to be judgmental.  It was because I focused on training for new habits.  It wasn’t a direct frontal attack that helped me stay on the tracks.  It was an indirect side attack on my character as a whole.

New HABITS

Here at SCC we have a core value of seeking to create healthy community through biblical patterns of relating to one another. These biblical patterns of relating to one another are the new habits we’re trying to train into becoming.  We have an acronym to talk about these.  It is conveniently H.A.B.I.T.S.

H – Hang out with God in prayer, meditation, and fasting.
A – Give a true Account of yourself to someone else in an accountability friendship.
B – Read your Bible daily.  It’s hard to know what biblical patterns of relating to one another are if you’re not reading your Bible.
I – Getting Involved with the church.  That’s means getting into the messy work of friendships.
T – Tithe your money.  The Old Testament standard for giving is 10%.  The New Testament standard is higher: live simply and give everything else away!
S – Serve your church, community, and world.

If you train at developing these habits in your life, the old habits that cause you to jump off the tracks will slowly but surely disappear, and you will find that you continue on the tracks for longer and longer periods of time.

Staying on the Tracks (Most of the Time)

I’d like to give you three examples from my own life of how this has worked.  I’m not talking about myself because I’ve got it all together or because I always stay on the tracks.  I’m talking about myself because I know my own experience best.

First, I’ve had an old habit of being judgmental.  I’d look at people and categorize them pretty quickly into one of two boxes: saints or sinners.  This would especially happen during worship.  If you raised your hands in worship, you were in the “saints” box.  If you kept your hands in your pockets you were in the “sinners” box.  I took this so far that I had a rule about dating: I’d only date a girl that raised her hands in worship!  Apparently I was more focused on watching other people worship than I was actually worshiping myself.

Over time as I began to practice new habits this judgmentalism began to break down.  As I got involved in people’s lives I realized that life isn’t that black and white.  And as I practiced the habit of accountability, I realized that my own life wasn’t that black and white.  Most of us, including myself have one foot in the saint box and one foot in the sinner box.  We may lean on one or the other from time to time, but we’re all a mixture of both.  My old habit of judgmentalism which would cause my life to jump off the tracks was replaced with new habits of patience and love for other people.  I can’t say that I’m never judgmental now, but it pops up a lot less often than it has in the past.

Second, in the past I have struggled with looking at pornography.  Every day during middle school and high school and going into college I would look at porn.  I’d tell myself that I was going to quit, but I just couldn’t no matter how hard I’d try.  I even told my youth pastor that I had to step down from leadership because of this sin in my life.  I had habits that put my life off the tracks.  I felt ashamed and double faced all the time.

More than any of the sins I have struggled with, this one shows more than any other the power of overcoming sin, staying on the tracks, by not focusing on trying to stop sinning.  What I did instead was focus on other habits like spending time with God, accountability, prayer, Bible reading, and the like and pretty soon I found that porn just became less and less of a temptation.  I was becoming a different kind of person who no longer had the habit of needing to objectify women in this way.  New habits were replacing the old, and it wasn’t because of a frontal “attack” on the sin.  It was an indirect attack from the side.  I stopped focusing on stopping an old habit and instead focused on cultivating new habits that kept me on the tracks in general.  Again, I can’t say that the temptation to porn no longer exists, but it holds a lot less power over me than it ever did before.

Third, I have in the past, and still somewhat now, struggled with being a cheapskate.  Let me give you an example.  I like to go to Biggby’s coffee, but I don’t drink coffee.  So I order tea.  Because I bring my own mug, they ring me up at $1.17.  I usually have a $1/off coupon so I pay 17 cents.  I’ve also gotten to know the barista’s who work there, and I’ve even begun to care a little more for them as people and not just faces that serve me.  They’re mostly college students, and they’re making a lot less than I do.  I’ve never tipped them even though there’s a jar there for tips.  So lately I’ve decided to put a $1 tip in every time I use a $1/off coupon.  I wouldn’t have even thought of this in the past, but because I’m practicing the habit of tithing at church, and being generous with my money there, it’s rubbing off on me and I’m slowly becoming more generous with other people too.

A World on the Tracks

I wonder what our world would look like if all the Christians started practicing these kinds of habits and staying on the tracks more often?  It might look like the early church, especially the habits they practiced when it came to money. The 4th century pagan emperor Julian, wrote a letter to his pagan priest Arsacius saying, “It is disgraceful that, when no Jew has ever to beg, and the impious [because they don’t worship the Roman gods] Galileans [his term for Christians because Jesus came from Galilee] support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us” (11).  What would the world look like if all the non-Christians saw the Christians behaving like the Christians of Julian’s day?  We’d not only be developing new habits of God that keep our own lives on the tracks, but we’d be helping one another stay on the tracks too.  That’s the kind of community I’d like to be a part of.  That’s the kind of community I hope you’d hold me accountable to being, and I’ll hold you accountable to being.

Prayer

God, I confess that my life is off the tracks and that I have a tendency to stay off the tracks. I confess that the world we live in is off the tracks and tends to keep us off the tracks too.  Forgive us.  By the power of your Spirit at work in us, give us new habits that keep us and those around us on the tracks of living at peace with you and with others.  In Jesus’ name.  Amen.

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Off the Tracks – Personal Sin

November 7, 2011 by 2 Comments

Off the Tracks

Off the Tracks – Personal Sin
Sycamore Creek Church
November 6, 2011
Tom Arthur
Matthew 7:13-14

Matthew 7:13-14 NLT
You can enter God’s Kingdom only through the narrow gate. The highway to hell is broad, and its gate is wide for the many who choose the easy way. But the gateway to life is small, and the road is narrow, and only a few ever find it.

Today we begin a new series called Off the Tracks. Has your life ever jumped the tracks? You know. Because of something you said, or did, or thought your life ended up not the way it’s supposed to be, off the tracks. Being off the tracks is called sin, and that’s what this series is going to explore.

Sin is a tricky thing to talk about without coming across as really negative. I grew up in what is called the “holiness tradition.” The holiness tradition is focused on being holy, and in order to be holy, one must not sin. So sin was a real focus for me growing up. Sin was something that you did everything you could to root out of your life. Jesus helped in there somewhere, but sometimes God came across as pretty hard to please, like a heavenly Santa Claus who is keeping a list and checking it not just twice but several times a day.

In our own culture, images of talking about sin tend to be pretty negative. We think of labeling sin like a scarlet red letter branded on someone’s clothing. Or a soap box preacher at Wells Hall on MSU’s campus.

Our view of what is sinful tends to be pretty diverse. But there are a couple of places of consensus. The one sin that everyone in our culture agrees upon is intolerance. You’re definitely off the tracks if you are intolerant to someone or a group of people. And the one culture that we all agree was sinful was the Nazis (and even evil!). Then there are the times when we think sin is good as in “sinful chocolate cake.”

Sin Is…

The Bible uses a lot of different metaphors to talk about sin. Sin is missing a target. Sin is straying from the fold. Sin is a hard heart and a stiff neck. Sin is blindness and deafness. Sin is a beast crouching at the door waiting to pounce. Sin is overstepping a line (transgression) or a failure to reach it (shortcoming). Or as we saw in the verses read above, sin is wandering from the right path, the narrow path.

This last metaphor of wandering from the narrow path implies that it is easy to sin and difficult to not sin. The narrow path is, well, narrow, like a railroad line or a balance beam. The path of sin is wide and easy to keep in like a six lane highway.

Paul, one of the authors of the New Testament, adds to our understanding of sin when he describes it in terms of two dimensions. On the one hand sin is actual sins, the moments when our actions or decisions cause our life to jump off the tracks. On the other hand Paul talks about sin as a kind of force, power, or disposition that pushes us off the tracks. You can see this in his letter to the Romans:

Romans 5:12-17 NLT
When Adam sinned (actual sin), sin (force/power/disposition) entered the entire human race. Adam’s sin brought death (off the tracks), so death spread to everyone (force/power/disposition), for everyone sinned (actual sins)…What a contrast between Adam and Christ, who was yet to come! And what a difference between our sin and God’s generous gift of forgiveness. For this one man, Adam, brought death to many through his sin. But this other man, Jesus Christ, brought forgiveness to many through God’s bountiful gift. And the result of God’s gracious gift is very different from the result of that one man’s sin. For Adam’s sin led to condemnation (off the tracks), but we have the free gift of being accepted by God, even though we are guilty of many sins (actual sin). The sin of this one man (actual sin), Adam, caused death to rule over us (force/power/disposition), but all who receive God’s wonderful, gracious gift of righteousness will live in triumph over sin and death (back on the tracks) through this one man, Jesus Christ.

Next week we’re going to look at how sin is a kind of power, force, or disposition. Today we’re going to be looking at actual or personal sins, the moments when our actions or decisions cause our lives to jump off the tracks.

Sin can be looked at in negative light. It is anything intentional or unintentional that causes the train of our lives to jump the tracks like lying, stealing, greed, adultery, and the like. But sin can also be seen from a positive perspective. The tracks are what the Bible calls “peace” or more literally “shalom.” “Shalom” is the Hebrew word for “peace.” But shalom is more than just the absence of conflict. Shalom is a well being of the whole person: socially, physically, emotionally, psychologically, and spiritually. God is for shalom, and because sin is what breaks shalom, God is against sin. The tricky part of all this is that there are a lot of ways to break shalom or peace with others. That’s why the way of sin is broad and easy. And because it is often hard to keep peace with others, the way of shalom is narrow and hard.

Beauty on the Tracks

One misperception of the narrow way of peace is that it doesn’t leave much room to be creative. This way of thinking says that the narrow way becomes confining and restricting. It is for party poopers and people who have their undies in a bunch wanting to keep the rest of us from having any fun. But this is a misperception. It does take discipline to walk in the narrow way of peace but there can be great and beautiful creativity within the “tracks” of how it is supposed to be.

There’s an amazingly beautiful short video that illustrates well the beauty that is possible through the discipline of the narrow way. Watch for the moments in this video that require discipline in the narrow way in order for those moments to be beautiful.

Living on the tracks isn’t for duds, it can be a beautiful and life-giving experience. One example of this comes from the fourth century emperor Julian. He is writing a letter to his “pagan” priest, Arsacius. In it he says, “It is disgraceful that, when no Jew has ever to beg, and the impious Galileans [his term for Christians] support not only their own poor but ours as well, all men see that our people lack aid from us.” That’s the narrow way, the way of peace and shalom. It’s opposite the broad way of sin. It’s living on the tracks.

One author describes living on the tracks as strong marriages; secure thriving children, nations respecting and valuing differences within and without; men deferring to women and women deferring to men and in a crisis the most talented one making a decision; public officials serving in truth and integrity while valuing other public officials; business associates thankful for someone else’s promotion; missile silos converted to scuba diving tanks; news papers filled with stories of virtue, joy, and beauty; in God all would give thanks and glory; and we would see in our differences a unity among diversity (like the Trinity who is one united God in three diverse persons of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit). Now that’s a beautiful vision of the world back on the tracks.

Back on the Tracks

I think that most of us have an innate sense that our lives are continually off the tracks. We don’t even live up to our own expectations of ourselves, let alone live into the way of peace and shalom that God desires for us. So the big question becomes, “How do I get back on the tracks?”

The first step to getting back on the tracks is this: Tell the truth about yourself, confess to yourself and God that your life is off the tracks and then do what is in your power to point your life back toward the tracks (perhaps by confessing to others how you have broken peace with them). This is the hard step. It is always difficult to move out of denial and into the truth. It is hard to take off the mask with yourself and God and be truly who you are, a broken and sinful person whose life is not the way it’s supposed to be.

The second step is to receive God’s lift back on the tracks. Receive God’s mercy and forgiveness. A train that has jumped that tracks can’t get itself back on the tracks. It requires intervention from the outside. The same is true of our lives. To get our life back on the track, God must pull out God’s crane of forgiveness and put our life back on the track of being in right relationship with God and others around us. God’s forgiveness puts you back on the tracks of peace with God and others.

John Donne, a 17th century poet, has written a beautiful poem that describes what it is like to confess and receive God’s forgiveness. I invite you to use this poem as a prayer of confession and forgiveness.

A Hymn to God the Father
by John Donne

I.
Wilt thou forgive that sin where I begun,
Which was my sin, though it were done before?
Wilt thou forgive that sin, through which I run,
And do run still, though still I do deplore?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For I have more.
II.
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I have won
Others to sin, and made my sin their door?
Wilt thou forgive that sin which I did shun
A year or two, but wallowed in a score?
When thou hast done, thou hast not done,
For I have more.
III.
I have a sin of fear, that when I have spun
My last thread, I shall perish on the shore;
But swear by thyself, that at my death thy Son
Shall shine as he shines now, and heretofore;
And having done that, thou hast done;
I fear no more.

Third, stay on the tracks by growing in the practices of living at peace. This requires knowledge about the tracks. That knowledge comes in two forms: from the Bible and from the community of Christians who are seeking to understand and live what the Bible teaches. As you practice what the Bible teaches, you will soon form new habits that tend to keep you on the tracks. Those new habits over time will end up forming in you a new nature so that you don’t even have to think about staying on the tracks. And soon you will find that you are delighting in staying on the tracks and the “narrow way” is no longer hard but easy and joyful.

But in the mean time, why don’t we stay on the tracks? Why do we keep sinning? Why do we keep breaking peace with God and others? Because our nature is fundamentally broken. And that’s what we’ll be talking about next week.

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Off the Tracks

October 31, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Off the Tracks

Have you ever seen a train jump off the tracks?  Like in a newsreel or in a movie?  It’s not a pretty sight.  The tracks keep the train moving forward in a positive direction.  Have your own actions and attitudes ever caused your life to jump off the tracks?  It’s not a pretty sight.  Come join us for a three-week teaching series that will explore how and why sin causes our lives to jump off the tracks.

November 6 – Personal Sin

November 13 – Corporate Sin

November 20 – Gray Areas

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Four Circles Story

August 15, 2011 by Leave a Comment

Of all the “tracts” that describe the four spiritual laws, this is probably my favorite.  I like how it includes the entirety of creation.

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