Sunday, April 29, 2012

BREAKING FREE.. PART I (What has gone wrong?)


BREAKING FREE…. Part 1
(WHAT HAS GONE WRONG?)
Eph 4: 11-12, Amos 7:7
Out of frustration parents and grownups may at times tell children “grow up, don’t act so immature” What do they mean by that? They probably mean “when will you take responsibility for your actions and behave like a matured person”?  But the irony is that many of us so called grownups act like a bunch of immature children. What does it mean to be immature? It means not mature, ripe, developed, perfected, emotionally undeveloped or childish.

If you ask marriage counselors what are some of the most challenging things they deal with in helping couples who are having marital problems?  They would say it is “Emotional Immaturity” Counselors may not say this in so many words but they too wish couples would grow up and begin to take responsibility for their own share of problems.  Do only non Christians struggle with emotional immaturity or even Christians do? Unfortunately we find immaturity among many church going Christians.

If I were to ask you what is God’s best for you what would you say?  The following scripture explains what is God’s best for us. John 10:10, “The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life; and have it to the full.”

Paul showed what the goal of every Christian should be in Eph 4:11-12, “It was he who gave some to be apostles some to be prophets, some to be evangelists, and some to be pastors and teachers, to prepare God’s people for works of service so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ.” If becoming mature and having abundant life is God’s best for us then why don’t we see that in our lives and in the body of Christ? Instead we see brokenness in people’s lives. We see people struggle with a whole range of negative emotions from depression and insecurity to hostility and rage.  

What could be the reason?  Why are we not experiencing His fullness, what is hindering us from becoming truly matured? For the next five weeks I will be sharing a series called, “Breaking Free: (Moving towards Wholeness)”We will be looking into: What has gone wrong? Something’s Out of Line, The Walls of my heart, Breaking Down Walls, Rebuilding the   Foundations. Some of the things I will be sharing come from a subject which I used to teach in YWAM called, “The Divine Plumbline,” by Bruce Thompson.

Since this is pretty heavy duty stuff which may stir up certain reactions which cannot be adequately dealt with during Sunday service. Therefore the next five Friday nights during this series I invite you to join our group discussion on this material. These evening we will meet in a small grip[ where you can open up and ask questions, give comments, receive ministry through prayer. Let me assure you that to the degree you are open to God and to one another to that degree you will experience freedom, become mature and enjoy the fullness of God. In order to break free we have to be clear on what’s gone wrong?  Where did we miss the mark?



I. WHAT HAS GONE WRONG?
The question suggests that at one point things were better but they are no longer the same in fact they are getting worse by the day. Over the years there have been numerous discussions and debates on the subject of the earth we live came into existence. There have been two theories one is “Evolution which believes that “Life on Earth has evolved over 3.7 billion years, and the other is Creationism which believes that humanitylife, the Earth, are the creation of a supernatural being.”

There have been arguments and counter arguments on both sides and they will continue.  According to my personal study of scriptures I come to realize that I am a creationist who believes that everything we see and don’t see has been created by God. Therefore I want to take you back in time where every thing began and let you look at the origin of man, the fall of man and the affects of Sin.

  1. THE ORIGIN OF MAN:
The Genesis story begins with these words, “In the beginning God created.” After creating the world in five days on the sixth day God said, Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air, over the live stock over al the earth and over all the creatures that move along the ground. So God created man in his own image in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. God blessed them and said to them, Be fruitful and increase in number fill the earth and subdue it. Rule over the fish of the sea and the birds of the air and over every living creature that moves on the ground.” Gen 1:26-28

This passage highlights three essential truths. First, God has set mankind uniquely apart from the rest of the creation by making them in his image and likeness. James 3:9, “With the tongue we praise our Lord and Father, and with it we curse men who have been made in God’s likeness.” Let this truth sink in; that all men are made in the image of God. That affirms the dignity of all mankind regardless of their color, race or ethnicity. Second, both men and women are made in the image of God hence no one is superior both are equal in the sight of God. Third, mankind was given a responsibility to be fruitful, multiply and take care of the earth.

What does it mean to be made in the image of God? It means according to one commentator, “we are to be his representatives (imaging God) in carrying out his purposes in the ordering of our lives and the carrying out of our God-given responsibilities.”[1] What is our responsibility? To be fruitful and multiply and fill the earth. We have done pretty good at that with the world’s population being at 7 billions, but we are doing a lousy job in taking care of the earth.

The earth has plenty of resources for every one, we are to explore them and not exploit them, and we are to manage them well by being good stewards of God given resources. Everything God made was good and untarnished in the beginning then how come we don’t see that goodness in the world today? The man who once enjoyed perfect harmony, peace and a loving relationship with God has lost that relationship, how did that happen? What went wrong? That brings us to the second point the fall of man.

B. THE FALL OF MAN:
After creating man God took him and put him in the Garden of Eden to work it and take care of it. And the Lord God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat of it you will surely die.”(Gen 2:15-16) Adam must have communicated this command to his companion Eve.  One day Eve came to the middle of the garden and saw the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. Satan showed up in the form of a serpent and said to the woman, “Did God really say, you must not eat from any tree in the garden? By saying that, he planted a seed of doubt in the mind of the woman. Even today his strategy is to sow seeds of doubt in our minds.

The serpent did not have to force the woman to take the forbidden fruit all he needed to was to make her doubt what God has said. Once the woman saw it, and spent some time in contemplating what the fruit could do, she took some at it and gave to her husband who was with her. That was the beginning of a major disaster, the harmonious relationship of man was broken. The first couple fell out of God’s grace.  With that fall not only man lost his peace but the world lost its peace. As a result of the fall what came into the world? Shame, guilt, fear, anger, jealousy, hatred, violence, murder and a number of other destructive vices we can label all of them into one word, SIN.

Adam and Eve disobeyed the single commandment given by God through their disobedience. The scriptures tell us, “Therefore, just as sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin, and in this way death came to all men, because all sinned.”(Romans 5:12) How is Adam’s Sin affecting us today?

C. THE AFFECTS OF SIN

How we understand sin determines how we feel about sin. If we merely see it as weakness, mistake or an offense we may not feel remorse about sinning but if we see at as a willful or deliberate transgression or violation of divine law then we feel more remorseful. Each one views sin differently depending on their background. What is sin for someone may not be necessarily sin for someone else. When we define sin we give labels such as, drunkenness, sexual immorality, smoking, drugs, unfaithfulness, gluttony, etc but are they really sin or symptoms of a much bigger problem?

How does Bible describe sin? The word used for sin in Greek means, “missing the mark” or falling short of God’s standard or expectation. Moses after giving the Ten Commandments and other sundry laws to the Israelites tells them, “But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the LORD; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out” Numbers 32:23. The clear definition of sin is breaking the commandments of God. In I John 3:4, “Every one who sins breaks the law; in fact sin is lawlessness.”

Do you see lawlessness in the world, people taking law into their own hands? That is the reason why in some places some one can kill an innocent person but under a certain man made law gets away without being punished. Let’s not be overwhelmed by the increased lawlessness in recent years. It has been predicted by Jesus, in Matthew 24:12, “Because lawlessness is increased most people love will grow cold.”

Sin is disobedience to God’s expressed commands.  The Bible says “every one who sins is a slave to sin” John 8:34 in other words they live in bondage to sin. The affects of sin are far reaching we will look into that as we go further in our study but for now it is enough to know that they are deadly and destructive. Sin destroys individuals, families, churches, societies and nations, in the end separates us eternally from God in hell. The sad news is that all of us have disobeyed God’s commands and if we do nothing, we will die in our sins. The wages of sin is death!  (Romans 6:23)  We will die physically and then there will be a judgment where we will answer to God. But the good news is that Christ Jesus came into the world to save us from the punishment of sin, free us from the power of sin and to give us eternal life.  Amen






[1] Erickson’s comments on P.527 Ethics and Social Issues class notes