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 humanity, life,
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.
- 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
