Sin Kills

Three ways to die

GE 3:21-24 The LORD God made garments of skin for Adam and his wife and clothed them. 22 And the LORD God said, "The man has now become like one of us, knowing good and evil. He must not be allowed to reach out his hand and take also from the tree of life and eat, and live forever." 23 So the LORD God banished him from the Garden of Eden to work the ground from which he had been taken. 24 After he drove the man out, he placed on the east side of the Garden of Eden cherubim and a flaming sword flashing back and forth to guard the way to the tree of life.

God told Adam that when you sin - you die - one way or another.

What was it like to see an animal skinned? Old Yeller movie - heartrending.

All sin kills, You can die physically, spiritually or relationally.

Physically ? no second chance, car crash, OD, guns, cancer

Youth pastor Chris Perry, was at the March 24, 1998 Jonesboro school shootings. He said, "An emergency room and a funeral home have a way of driving home what really matters in life. Two middle schoolers?one of them a former member of my youth group ?pulled a fire alarm at a middle school in my hometown, then killed five people as they ran from the building.

Mitchell Johnson, one of the shooters, sat staring back at me behind bulletproof glass at the county detention center. Mitchell spent about six weeks in my ministry and had professed his faith in Christ during a youth revival at my church. I see the fear and confusion in his eyes, and I remember the outrage I felt. This memory hurts.

I see a coffin at the front of a church during a funeral for one of the victims. And I remember the growing sense of urgency I felt as I considered my calling. When you’re staring at the coffin of a middle schooler, it suddenly doesn’t matter whether you’re building a better Web site or designing an award-winning newsletter or compiling an impressive résumé. No. Absolutely not. Coffins and graves keep us accountable to our calling.

Relationally ? broken trust, broken vows, betrayal, who hasn’t experienced this?

Think of someone who is dead to you relationally.

Spiritually ? fear is that you would not want a second chance. Can we find our way back?

How does this happen ? hearts hard to God, insensitive to sin?

We chocolate coat insects ? ever eat one?

The Danger of glossing over sin ? it doesn’t make death any less certain

We tell white lies, we say greed is good, gossip is news - selfishness is justifiable, whorehouse is mustang ranch, gambling is gaming, smut is gentlemen clubs. We call it dysfunction, affairs, fling, lifestyle, choices a phase we’re going through, misdeed, naughtiness - but it is still garbage.

Sin is ugly - destructive, shaming, if we tolerate it - it lowers us into an abyss

Sin goes on Killing

Gen. 4:2-16. ...Now Abel kept flocks, and Cain worked the soil. 3 In the course of time Cain brought some of the fruits of the soil as an offering to the LORD. 4 But Abel brought fat portions from some of the firstborn of his flock. The LORD looked with favor on Abel and his offering, 5 but on Cain and his offering he did not look with favor. So Cain was very angry, and his face was downcast. 6 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Why are you angry? Why is your face downcast? 7 If you do what is right, will you not be accepted? But if you do not do what is right, sin is crouching at your door; it desires to have you, but you must master it." 8 Now Cain said to his brother Abel, "Let’s go out to the field." And while they were in the field, Cain attacked his brother Abel and killed him. 9 Then the LORD said to Cain, "Where is your brother Abel?"

"I don’t know," he replied. "Am I my brother’s keeper?"

10 The LORD said, "What have you done? Listen! Your brother’s blood cries out to me from the ground. 11 Now you are under a curse and driven from the ground, which opened its mouth to receive your brother’s blood from your hand. 12 When you work the ground, it will no longer yield its crops for you. You will be a restless wanderer on the earth." 13 Cain said to the LORD, "My punishment is more than I can bear. 14 Today you are driving me from the land, and I will be hidden from your presence; I will be a restless wanderer on the earth, and whoever finds me will kill me." 15 But the LORD said to him, "Not so; if anyone kills Cain, he will suffer vengeance seven times over." Then the LORD put a mark on Cain so that no one who found him would kill him. 16 So Cain went out from the LORD’s presence and lived in the land of Nod, east of Eden.