INTRO
- There are certain conversations in life that I love.
o Last week, while at Physical Therapy for my shoulder, I wound up discussing Calvinistic theology and how it applies within a modern context with my therapist.
o You know…light conversation for 7:45 in the morning.
o She happens to be the daughter of missionaries, and when she discovered I was a pastor, there was a natural segue into faith and life.
• I have two degrees in biblical studies and Christian leadership, so having time to actually discuss the stuff I paid so much to learn about is kind of fulfilling.
• And then there are conversations that aren’t quite as fulfilling.
o If there are times when we’re looking forward to talking with someone, then there are also times when we dread doing the same thing.
o And the difference in those conversations is the subject matter.
o One of my roles as a pastor is to manage staff, and there are times when I’ve had to let staff go.
o A number of years ago, I had to fire a youth intern that worked for me.
o He was a really nice kid, but he wasn’t living up to the expectations that his position had, and after a certain amount of time, it was clear that he wasn’t willing to take his responsibilities seriously.
o I called him on a Wednesday night, and told him that I wanted to meet with him the next morning.
o And I didn’t really sleep well in the hours in between.
o What complicated that was the relationship I had with his dad, who was a friend and another pastor in town with me.
o But, in the end, I knew what needed to be done, and I had the conversation no one enjoys having.
• We’ve all lived out moments like that.
o Maybe you haven’t needed to fire someone, but you’ve known that the next conversation you’re going to have with somebody will be uncomfortable.
o Maybe it’s a close friend that you’re suddenly in the midst of a conflict with.
o Or maybe it’s a spouse who’s caught onto that little thing you’ve tried to keep secret from them.
o Or maybe its time to talk to your kids about sex, drugs and rock and roll.
o Two out of those three are awesome, within the right context.
• Regardless, there are crucial conversations in life that need to happen, even if we’re not looking forward to it.
THE 800 LB GORILLA IN THE ROOM
• Today, we begin a series that will be uncomfortable for us.
• It will be awkward for me as the speaker, and trying for you as the listener.
• And the reason it will be uncomfortable is because we’re going to talk about sin.
o Within the context of our faith, sin is the one thing that we are all aware of, yet we really don’t talk about it, let alone deal with it.
o But sin is what brings us to God in the first place, right?
o And so, there’s this weird paradox in regards to sin the longer we live as followers of Jesus Christ.
• On the front end of faith, I’ve found that people that are coming to Jesus will talk about everything.
o I’ve prayed with people to accept Jesus, and they will unleash a laundry list of transgressions in the heat of that moment.
o And I always do my best, while inwardly thinking, “Oh man, this guy’s really screwed up. Good luck Jesus.”
o But, in the light of the Cross and our sudden realization of how much we need its grace, we don’t hold back.
o We’ll talk about the magazines we saw as a kid that we know we shouldn’t of, or the candy bar we swiped from the grocery store when no one was looking, or addiction that haunts every waking moment of life.
o Because, when we compare our mistakes to the incredible love of Jesus Christ, we understand how much better that love is than the things that weigh us down.
• A funny thing happens the longer we journey in that faith, though.
o Where in the moment that we come to Christ we confess everything, the farther we journey down the road with him, the less we confess.
o I don’t know why it happens, but we stop talking about our sin, and we even start denying that its even there inside of us still.
o We start showing up in church every week, always making sure that we look like we took the time to clean ourselves up, and we try to appear to everyone else that things are going well and we left all of that old behavior behind us.
o We join the choir and sit in bible studies, and the whole time we hope that every body else believes that everything is good now for us.
o But here’s the thing: it’s not.
o Let me say this right at the beginning of this series on sin, just so we are all on the same page: life doesn’t instantly improve the second you become a Christian.
o You’re sin doesn’t just disappear, and there is no quick fix to your situation.
o As a matter of fact, the decision you make to place your faith in Jesus will actually make your life more difficult.
• Dealing with the apparent sin in our life means that we are willing to look inward and peel back the layers of who we are and understand why we do what we do.
• Dealing with sin means that we will be honest with ourselves, and use our inspiration from God to do the hard work of changing our behavior.
o Faith takes a lifetime of commitment and discipline, and those are two things that don’t just instantly appear in life.
ALL BY MYSELF
• Over the next seven weeks, we are going to have uncomfortable conversations about the seven deadly sins in life, and we are going to have to look hard at ourselves and make some big decisions while we do that.
• Just so that we’re clear, as we talk about the seven deadly sins, we need to know that these are not found listed in the bible.
• The classic list of Seven Sins is something that stems from the Roman Catholic Church.
• It is a compilation of the sinful behaviors consistently detailed throughout the bible.
• And, week by week, we will see how each of these sins has continually affected mankind and driven us back to the Cross more times than we care to admit.
• Let’s begin with humanity’s first sin, and see what sent us spiraling down this path in the first place:
o Now the serpent was more crafty than any of the wild animals the Lord God had made. He said to the woman, “Did God really say, ‘You must not eat from any tree in the garden’?”
The woman said to the serpent, “We may eat fruit from the trees in the garden, but God did say, ‘You must not eat fruit from the tree that is in the middle of the garden, and you must not touch it, or you will die.’”
“You will not certainly die,” the serpent said to the woman. “For God knows that when you eat from it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil.”
When the woman saw that the fruit of the tree was good for food and pleasing to the eye, and also desirable for gaining wisdom, she took some and ate it. She also gave some to her husband, who was with her, and he ate it. Then the eyes of both of them were opened, and they realized they were naked; so they sewed fig leaves together and made coverings for themselves. Genesis 3:1-7
• There is a weird lesson that we teach our kids.
o We want them to learn how to do things “all by themselves”.
o We teach them to take pride every time when they do something for themselves.
o The moment when they finally get potty trained. Or when they tie their shoe for the first time. Or when they get their driver’s license.
o It takes awhile for us to grow out of that mindset, too.
• I was 20 when I did my taxes for the first time, and I ran out to all of my friends and proclaimed: “I did my taxes all by myself!”
• “Great. Go to work.”
• Ironically, man’s very first sin came from the same idea.
o As children, parents want us to grow up to be like them in a lot of ways, to emulate and replicate their behaviors.
o On the surface, this is exactly what Satan tried to get Eve to believe standing under the tree.
o “You know, if you just eat this fruit, you will be like God. Don’t you think He wants that?”
o After all, isn’t that what every parent wants: to have their children grow up to do things for themselves?
• Now, here’s a truly ironic lesson from the story of Adam and Eve: doing things “all by myself” leaves us all by ourselves.
o God walked with Adam and Eve in the garden, but once they bought into the lie of their own independence and importance, God stopped walking with them.
o Sin caused a separation in the relationship between God and man, and it still exists today.
o And when that happened, the very first sin committed since the dawn of creation was passed on from Lucifer to us.
o We call it pride.
THE MYTH OF IMPORTANCE
• There’s a feeling that we all seem to chase.
o Every single one of us likes to feel important.
o We love to experience a sense of value placed upon us because of who we are.
o Some people become addicted to that feeling.
o They believe that within the situation of their life, others around them cannot go on without them.
o And so that feeling motivates people and shapes their behavior.
• And yet, that way of living and thinking is about the furthest opposite of Jesus’ example that you could ever find.
• Listen to the example that Jesus provided us for life that Paul details in Philippians 2:
o Therefore if you have any encouragement from being united with Christ, if any comfort from his love, if any common sharing in the Spirit, if any tenderness and compassion, then make my joy complete by being like-minded, having the same love, being one in spirit and of one mind. Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.
In your relationships with one another, have the same mindset as Christ Jesus:
Who, being in very nature God,
did not consider equality with God something to be used to his own advantage;
rather, he made himself nothing
by taking the very nature of a servant,
being made in human likeness.
And being found in appearance as a man,
he humbled himself
by becoming obedient to death—
even death on a cross!
Therefore God exalted him to the highest place
and gave him the name that is above every name,
that at the name of Jesus every knee should bow,
in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and every tongue acknowledge that Jesus Christ is Lord,
to the glory of God the Father. (v. 1-11)
• How is it that in a culture that rewards those who rise above the rest, we sit here today and sing the praises of a God who humbled himself more than any human ever has?
• One of my favorite stories from this last year involves two actors who portray superheroes on the big screen.
o Chris Pratt is better know to kids all across the world as Star Lord from the Guardians of the Galaxy, and Chris Evans plays a character called Captain America, whom you might have heard of.
o Back in February, Chris Pratt – who is a Seahawks fan – made a bet with Chris Evans – a devout Patriots fan.
o The bet: If Pratt's team -- the Seattle Seahawks -- won the Super Bowl, Evans would visit Seattle Children's Hospital dressed as Captain America. If Evans' team -- the New England Patriots -- won, Pratt would visit Christopher's Haven in Boston dressed as "Guardians of the Galaxy" character Star-Lord, wearing Patriots quarterback Tom Brady's jersey.
o Even though the Patriots won, the two Chris’s visited both hospitals. Pratt wore his Star-Lord costume to visit Boston Children's Hospital in February, and Evans donned his Captain America duds to visit Seattle Children's in March, bearing gifts in the form of Marvel action figures and accessories.
• Both of these men made more money last year than I will make over my entire career, and yet the cast aside their achievements and used their fame to make the lives of suffering kids a little bit better.
• It’s a great story, and one that I think all of us can appreciate.
o But why is it that we can celebrate stories of humility in actors or athletes, and ignore the greatest story of humility we’ve ever known?
o As a matter of fact, a lot of the world despises the humility of Christ, rather than celebrate it.
o And every time we chase that feeling of self-importance, and live an “all by myself” life, we inadvertently despise the humility of Christ too.
• Here is the root of the lie of pride, the lie that takes us farther and farther away from God: You don’t need God.
o As a matter of fact, if you do things correctly, you don’t need any one else to be successful.
o Isn’t that the true mark of success? The person who achieved everything on their own willpower and determination, without any handouts from others?
o And if that idea is one of your core values, then why the heck are you here today?
o Because this place is about Jesus Christ, who didn’t ascend in life in glory, but descended from heaven in humility.
o He was God in Flesh; he had the power to speak life with a single word and end life with another.
o He set aside his glorified being in order to walk amongst us as one of us, and in incredibly intimate fashion, he reminded us of the truth in face of our human lie: we desperately need God.
o And as he willingly gave up his life, like a lamb being led to the slaughter, he took our pride, and our vanity, and our delusional belief in our own power, with him to the Cross.
o And finally – FINALLY – the original sin that cast us out of the presence of God was made right in the Father’s eyes.
• And so today, I celebrate a God-forsaken God who died in weakness and shame because he CHOSE to do so for me.
• And it doesn’t matter what kind of life and existence I want for myself, and try to will into reality through my own effort - in the end the only pride I will truly have is the knowledge of grace given to me.
• Grace that I did not deserve or earn.
HE DIED FOR US
• This is Jesus Christ.
• This is the supreme power of the universe, brought low because he willed it to happen.
• And in our sinful pride, we mock him still.
o We use his name as a curse word and a punch line.
o We spit on his legacy by denying his deity.
o We slap him in his face by ignoring his importance to us.
o We demean him by making him a cartoon and a caricature.
o And we place him back on that cross every single time we believe the lie that we don’t need him desperately.
• He died for my pride. He died for your pride. He was whipped and beaten and insulted and treated like filth because of our inability to deal with ourselves and the ugliness of our sin.
• And all he asks of us for the death he gave in our place, is that we die to ourselves in return.
• And we may say “yes” to that, but live a resounding “no”.
• Now, here’s the solution:
o Rather than waft around in a delusional pride and vanity, absorbed with yourself and all that you’ve done “all by yourself”, make a different choice.
o Everyday I wake up, a make a choice.
o I say to myself, “I need God.”
o And then I say to God, “I chose You and life in You today.”
o And I will do that everyday for the rest of my life.
o Why? Because it places me lower than Christ. It humbles my flesh and my selfish desires by stating the obvious: I need Him.
• God forgive all of us for every single moment we have lived forgetting our desperate need for Him.
• Let’s pray.
