Praying Your Friends & Family To Christ Series (3 of 5)
God Wants To Be Your Attitude Transplant Donor
Habakkuk 1.13a
October 24, 2004 Chester FBC, Chester, Illinois Mike Fogerson, Speaker
Introduction:
I read a Perfect Story This week about a perfect man & a perfect woman who had a perfect courtship, perfect wedding, perfect marriage.
A They are out on a snowy, stormy night and happen across a man carrying a large bag of toys. Santa Clause! They pick him up.
a Unfortunately, in the process of delivering toys there was a wreck and only one survived. The Perfect Woman: She’s the only one that existed in the first place.
b Everyone knows there is no Santa Clause and there’s no such thing as a perfect man . . . So, if there is no perfect man and no Santa Claus, the perfect woman must have been driving, which would explain why there was a car accident.
The truth is that there is neither perfect man nor woman. All have us has sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.
If we compare ourselves to one another, we may not be to bad . . . but when we compare ourselves to God’s holiness . . . we’re not that great.
B Today we are continuing the series Praying Your Friends & Family To Christ series with God Wants To Be Your Attitude Transplant Donner.
a Habakkuk 1.13a 13 Your eyes are too pure to approve evil, And You can not look on wickedness with favor.
b Habakkuk wrote that God could not stand the sight of sin. (ETS)
C REVIEW:
Heart: Pray they have receptive hearts to the Gospel.
Eyes: Pray that the veil would be taken from their hearts.
Attitude:
a Pray that our unbelieving friends/family will have God’s attitude toward sin. (ESS)
b I hope you’ll pray that your lost friends/family would see their sin the way God does. (Objective)
D How are you praying for your lost friends/family to have a change of attitude toward their sin? (Probing Question)
a Let’s look at two perspectives we can pray our lost friends/family to consider that can change their attitude toward sin.
b Pray
I The first perspective we can pray our lost friends/family to consider is God’s Holiness.
A Habakkuk knew that God was holy. (Too pure & holy to condone evil & wickedness.)
a God was unable to tolerate the presence of evil/sin. (Allergic to Sin)
b His holiness had two basic aspects to it.
1 Uniqueness
*Ex. 15.11 "Who is like You among the gods, O LORD? (NONE)
Who is like You, majestic in holiness (NONE), Awesome in praises (NONE), working wonders (NONE)?
*I Sam 2.2 2 "There is no one holy like the LORD, Indeed, there is no one besides You, Nor is there any rock like our God.
*There Is None Like You Chorus: There is none like you, no one else could touch my heart like you, I could search for all eternity long, and I would find there is none like you.
2 Goodness
*Matt 5.48 " . . .your heavenly Father is perfect."
*Hab 1.13 " . . . you can not look on wickedness with favor."
*The goodness of his holiness insists that God hate sin.
*16 There are six things which the LORD hates, Yes, seven which are an abomination to Him: 17 Haughty eyes, a lying tongue, And hands that shed innocent blood, Prov 6:16-17 (NASB)
*17 ’Also let none of you devise evil in your heart against another, and do not love perjury; for all these are what I hate,’ declares the LORD." Zech 8:17 (NASB)
B God is STILL HOLY!!!.
a Holiness is the centerpiece of God’s Attributes.
*The bible says God is love, truth, eternal . . . but it never says God is "love, love, love" or "Truth 3x" or "Eternal 3x." However, the bible twice emphatically declares (Is. 6.3; Rev. 4.8) that "Holy, Holy, Holy is the Lord of Hosts."
b Because God is still holy . . . he still HATES sin.
*God doesn’t dislike, disapprove sin. Isn’t unfavorably disposed to sin.
HE HATES SIN!!! He’s allergic to SIN!!
*God has not softened his stance against sin! HE’S HOLY!!!
C Adam & Eve had the perfect set-up!!
a Do whatever they wanted to, just don’t eat from the tree of life.
b They did! God’s allergic to sin and kicked’em out but not without the lovely parting gifts of hard labor and painful childbirth. Thanks so much for playing Who Wants To Tick God Off?
*Why did they get kicked out of Eden? God is HOLY and HATES SIN!!!
II The second perspective we can pray our lost friends/family to consider is their sinfulness.
A Habakkuk described with detail what sin was in two words: evil & wickedness.
a Evil: (Hebrew: Ra) to spoil by breaking into pieces, to make good for nothing, to destroy.
Wickedness: (Hebrew: Amel) Working, doing, laboring.
b By sinning against a Holy God, it was man working, not God who broke the relationship . . . and sin couldn’t be in God’s holy presence.
*God punishes sin. Rms. 6.23a "For the wages of sin is death . . ."
B Our sin (& the sin of our lost family/friends) has made us broken/estranged from God.
a (IL.)I love to see Policemen @ games, Wal-Mart, . . . I feel secure, protected; if something goes wrong the police officer will apprehend the law breaker.
I freak out when that same policeman pulls up behind me & I see his flashing lights in my review mirror.
*The police officer has not changed, but my relationship to him has.
*God is God and he does not change, but my sin changed my relationship to Him.
b 4 You adulteresses, do you not know that friendship with the world is hostility toward God? Therefore whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God. James 4:3-4 (NASB)
*Our sin (Lost Friends/Family Sin) makes us ENEMIES of God!!!
*What sin deserves is death . . . What God offers is life!
C All sin is deadly.
a Gary Richmond, Zoo Director told this story that illustrates what EVERY sin does.
Raccoons go through a glandular change at about 24 months. After that they often attack their owner. Since a 30-pound coon can be equal to a 100-pound dog in a scrap, a zoo keeper felt compelled to tell the change coming to a pet raccoon owned by a young lady named Julie. She listened politely as Gary explained the coming danger. He’ll never forget her response. "It will be different for me . . . Bandit wouldn’t hurt me. He just wouldn’t"
Julie underwent plastic surgery just 3 months later for facial lacerations sustained when her adult raccoon, Bandit, attacked her for no apparent reason.
b We (lost Friends/Family) may think our sin isn’t that big of a deal. (There small sins, little white ones.)
a Sin is all the same. It isn’t going to be different for you, me, them.
b Our sin pays out death . . . every single time!!!
*An encounter with God’s Holiness makes us aware that we are covered in something that God is allergic too and won’t tolerate to be anywhere near it.
Conclusion:
Habakkuk wrote that God could not stand the sight of sin. (ETS) Pray that our unbelieving friends/family will have God’s attitude toward sin. (ESS)
A We’ve looked at two perspectives we can pray our lost friends/family to consider that can change their attitude toward sin.
a God’s Holiness
b Their Sinfulness
B I hope you’ll pray that your lost friends/family would see their sin the way God does. (Objective)
a Acknowledge God’s holiness or Don’t. (Even if you don’t, it doesn’t change the fact that He is.)
b See sin for what it is or Don’t. (Death. Even if you don’t see sin for what it is, that fact remains that sin brings death and God hates it.)
C How are you praying for your lost friends/family to have a change of attitude toward their sin? (Probing Question)
a Only at the cross of Christ does man see fully what it is that separates him from God; yet it is here alone that he perceives that he is no longer separated from God. Nowhere else does the inviolable holiness of God, the impossibility of overlooking the guilt of man stand out more plainly; but nowhere else does the limitless mercy of God, which utterly transcends all human standards, stand out more clearly and plainly.
b Let me illustrate it this way: Let my left hand represent me and my right hand represent Jesus. (Hold up a book or other object with the left hand.) This book represents my imperfections, my shortcomings, my sin. God loves me (point to the left fingers) but He hates my sin (point to the book or other object) and punishes it. He has to remember, He’s holy. Because of His love, God sent Jesus into the world (lift up the right hand parallel to the left hand). The bible says, "All we like sheep have gone astray; we have turned every one to his own way; and the Lord hath laid on him the iniquity of us all" (Isa. 53.6). (As you say the words, "laid on him," transfer the book in one distinct motion from the left to the right hand and leave it there.) When Jesus died on the cross, God laid on Him all my sin, your sin, lost family/friends sin and guilt.
c How are you praying for your lost friends/family to have a change of attitude toward their sin? (Probing Question)
