The Blunder Effect (part 1)
Psalms 3:1-4
Ill. What is the only thing in nature that travels uphill faster than it comes down? Fire! On July 3, 1994, fire broke out near the base of Storm King Mountain in a canyon near Glenwood Springs, Colorado. Firefighters had been fighting the blaze for three days. On July 6th a group of smokejumpers thought they had the blaze well contained in the canyon below. Suddenly, the wind picked up and within moments the fire began racing up the mountain toward them. Unable to outrun the speeding inferno, twelve smokejumpers and two helitack crew were over taken by the inferno and perished.
Application:
There are some things that are so volatile and dangerous that, not matter how careful we think we're being, we dare not draw near. That is the nature of the danger posed to us by temptation.
Psa 3:1 A Psalm of David, when he fled from Absalom his son. O LORD, how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;
* David deals with the consequences of his sins.
* Notice that David's temptation was lust.
* The sin did not end with gratifying lust and adultery.
* It grew quickly to lying, deceiving, and murder.
* The consequences grew as well.
* A son who lusted and got way too intimate with his sister.
* Another son who, in revenge, murdered the guilty brother.
* This second son, rebellious, arrogant, seeking David's throne.
* Absalom declaring war against his father David.
* It echos back to the sad words of Nathan the prophet when he confronted David with his sins.
2Sa 12:7a Nathan said to David, "You are the man! ...
2Sa 12:9 Why have you despised the word of the LORD, to do what is evil in his sight? You have struck down Uriah the Hittite with the sword and have taken his wife to be your wife and have killed him with the sword of the Ammonites.
2Sa 12:10 Now therefore the sword shall never depart from your house, because you have despised me and have taken the wife of Uriah the Hittite to be your wife.'
* Now, David seems overwhelmed by opposition.
* The great saying, “Sin always takes you further than you want to go, keeps you longer than you want to stay and costs you more than you want to pay.”
* This is completely evident in this Psalm.
* “how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;”
1. Consequences of sins always affect relationships.
* Oh, how I wish that my sins, whether in attitude or in actions, did not affect my wife.
* Oh, how I wish my sins did not affect my son and daughter-in-law.
* How many times have I regretted that my undisciplined tongue had not affected my relationships with my deacons.
* How many times have I prayed that my anger in one situation would be limited to only those involved.
* The problem with sin—it is spiritual first.
* Therefore the ripples are unseen going out.
* It is shocking, awakening, when we realize how far our sins ripple spiritually and how many people we affect.
* I guarantee you, when David looked out over his roof onto Bathsheba's roof to get a better view of her bathing, it never crossed his mind who and how many people he would be hurting.
* Now, it seemed to him everybody was against him and his enemies outnumbered his friends.
Ill. In the 1960's Dr. Edward Lorenz, in trying to develop a systematic method for developing long range weather predictions, began focusing on Chaos Theory. Chaos theory basically is a study of how things that seem chaotic and random are actually more predictable from seemingly unrelated events.
Without getting too technical, he tried to describe the interrelationship between minor weather events in one part of the world with other major weather events a great distance away. He developed a theory called the “Butterfly Effect”.
The idea is that the ripple of minor wind disturbances caused by the wing of a butterfly in South America could create a hurricane in North America.
Though it sounds overly dramatic, it is not near as believable as the “Blunder Effect”.
* It looks like this; if a temptation of lust can turn into lying, deception, murder, and the consequences in a family can be the loss of one infant, the rape of a daughter, the murder of a son, the rebellion of another son, the loss of a kingdom and the death of the rebellious son in David's life....
* ...what will the result of yeilding to a small temptation do in your life?
* How will a small blunder in your life affect so many, so powerfully, and hurt so deeply?
* Consequences always affect relationships, the most important relationships in your life.
* But that is not all, and certainly not the end of the story....
2. Part of the results of consequences is a sense of hopelessness.
Psa 3:2 “many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. Selah.”
* Let me read you a few verses of scripture for your consideration, an application and an illustration.
Proverbs 13:24 “Whoever spares the rod hates his son, but he who loves him is diligent to discipline him.”
Proverbs 19:18 “Discipline your son, for there is hope; do not set your heart on putting him to death.”
Proverbs 22:15 “Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline drives it far from him.”
Proverbs 23:13-15a “Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you strike him with a rod, he will not die. If you strike him with the rod, you will save his soul from Sheol...”
* There are many more....
* Consider this with the scriptures above....
Hebrews 12:9 “Besides this, we have had earthly fathers who disciplined us and we respected them. Shall we not much more be subject to the Father of spirits and live?”
* Application... Do you honestly believe that a Heavenly Father who loves you would discipline you in a way that would just make your life inconvenient or one where you had to depend upon Him to endure?
* God is not interested in making your life inconvenient, being a little trouble, a bump in the road of life as His form of discipline or consequences of our sins.
* He wants us to run to Him, stay with Him, dwell with Him, draw from Him.
* We sin because we ran from God.
Ill. Chicken for dinner. When my dad was a small boy, he wanted to go fishing, but no one would take him. He sat on his porch with his fishing pole and pretended to be fishing until that became too boring. So he put a hook on and put a piece of bread on the hook. My grandmother let her chickens run free. It wasn't long until he got a nibble. He jerked and hook a good-laying hen through the head. Dad got a spanking he remembered, but he also remembered the family had fried chicken that night. My dad recalls, “It was worth it.”
* God would never discipline us like that, to the point we would say, “Well, the discipline was inconvenient, but the sin was well worth it.”
* God, in his perfection, disciplines us perfectly, completely, accomplishing a sense of hopelessness without Him.
* That is part of the “Blunder Effect.”
* But again, there is more to the story.....
3. The purpose of consequences is to turn us God-ward.
Psa 3:3-4 “But you, O LORD, are a shield about me, my glory, and the lifter of my head. 4 I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill. Selah.”
* One of the first temptations we will experience when we are under the full unmanageable pressure of consequences of sin is to ask, “God, why don't you love me any more.”
* I hope if you are experiencing that, you will review the scriptures on parents disciplining their children.
* Realize that God's discipline is a full demonstration of His love for you.
* The purpose of consequences is to have us to run to God.
* Look at David's focus in verses 3-4.
* “You are my shield” – God will not allow consequences which will destroy us.
* A shield does not stop the attack, but allows it to only go so far.
* A shield does not nor cannot remove the inconvenience of the arrows, but can limit the damage.
* God is the only shield. Only God is our survival in consequences of sin.
4. Consequences strip us from pretentious pride. “You are....My glory”.
* David was saying, “Lord, all I have now to be proud of in my life is you.”
* Is this not what Paul said in Philippians 3:8 “Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ.”
Gal 6:14 But God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the world.
* Consequences strip us from everything we can be proud of in our lives except of proud of our Saviour.
5. Consequences of our sins remove from us the draw of the World. “The lifter of my head”.
* The end results of God-permitted consequences will be a return of joy.
* In Psalms 35, David was looking at the friends who had betrayed him.
* In verse 14, David expressed the affect that the betrayals had on him.
“I went about as though I grieved for my friend or my brother; as one who laments his mother, I bowed down in mourning.”
* The consequences of our hurt relationships and trouble in life will bow us down.
Psalms 38:1-6 describes the natural reaction to discipline, “O LORD, rebuke me not in your anger, nor discipline me in your wrath! 2 For your arrows have sunk into me, and your hand has come down on me. 3 There is no soundness in my flesh because of your indignation; there is no health in my bones because of my sin. 4 For my iniquities have gone over my head; like a heavy burden, they are too heavy for me. 5 My wounds stink and fester because of my foolishness, 6 I am utterly bowed down and prostrate; all the day I go about mourning.
* Yet, through it all, the bowing down, the same, the heaviness, “The Lord is the lifter of my head.”
* It is through consequences that we stop looking for the world to lift our heads.
* We learn that the empty promises of sin and temptation cannot satisfy.
* Only God can lift us up. And....
6. Consequences remind us that God is only a call away.
“I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill.”
* He seemed a million miles away, but He was just waiting on our call.
* When we cry for Him, He answers us.
* His answer is not one of compromise of His Holiness.
* He never says, “Well, that sin wasn't that bad. You are only human.”
* He answers from His Holy Hill.
* His answer is, “I provided a sacrifice for that.”
* “I paid a hard price for that sin. But it is forgiven.”
Ill. Flamingo Flats, a spicy sauce company located in St. Michaels, MD, wants to spice up your life. It claims as its motto, “Life is too short to eat boring food” and boasts such culinary condiments as “Sting and Linger,” “Dave’s Insanity Sauce,” and “Hades in a Jar.” According to CHILI PEPPER MAGAZINE, Flamingo’s bestselling sauce at one time was “Religious Experience,” which came in Warm and Fuzzy, Hot, and Wrath.
Romans 8:1 states, “There is therefore no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus.”
* When you are in Christ Jesus, “Wrath” flavor is no longer on the menu. But love and discipline are part of our lives.
NOTES:
The Blunder Effect (part 1)
Psalms 3:1-3
Introduction:
2 Samuel 12:7a, 9-10
1. Consequences of sins always affect relationships. “how many are my foes! Many are rising against me;”
2. Part of the results of consequences is a sense of hopelessness. “many are saying of my soul, there is no salvation for him in God. Selah”
Proverbs 13:24, 19:18, 22:15, 23:13-15a.
Hebrews 12:9.
3. The purpose of consequences is to turn us God-ward. “You are a shield”.
4. Consequences strip us from pretentious pride. “My glory”.
Philippians 3:8, Gal 6:14.
5. Consequences of our sins remove from us the draw of the World. “The lifter of my head”.
Psalms 35:14.
Psalms 38:1-6.
6. Consequences remind us that God is only a call away. “I cried aloud to the LORD, and he answered me from his holy hill.”
Romans 8:1.
