Why Is It So Hard?

WHY IS IT SO HARD?

Proverbs 13:15

INTRODUCTION:

A. Over the past few months I have heard quite a few people tell me that life is hard

1. Life, Why is it so hard?

a. Is the over arching principle of life found in 1 Cor 10:31 hard to understand - Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.

b. Are the two precepts for conducting life hard to comprehend

1) First, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy mind, and with all thy strength Mk 12:30

2) Second, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself. Mk 12:31

c. If these are not so hard understand and comprehend – Why is it so Hard?

2. Why is my life for Christ so hard?

a. Is God’s commandment to me concerning my life viable?

b. Luke 9:23 If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.

c. If it is, why is it so hard?

3. Family, Why is it so hard?

a. Are the three statutes for the family attainable?

1) Husbands love your wives…

2) Wives honor your husbands…

3) Children obey your parents…

b. If they are attainable why is it so hard to keep a family together?

B. Why is it so hard?

1. Questions just like these:

a. Why is life so hard?

b. Why is loving God so hard?

c. Why is following Christ so hard?

d. Why is loving my neighbor so hard?

e. Why is keeping a family together so hard?

f. These have an answer

2. The answer to the questions is not so difficult and can be found in one verse in the book of Proverbs.

a. Proverbs 13:15 Good understanding giveth favour: but the way of transgressors is hard.

b. The way of the transgressor - what is his way?

c. SIN! AND IT IS HARD!

C. Folk’s let me put it plainly

1. If we are not glorifying God, loving God and neighbors

2. If husbands are not loving their wives, wives not honoring their husbands and children not obeying their parents

3. Sin’s involved – sin is the corrupter, it makes us transgressors and it is hard.

D. So how do we change things?

1. Well the same proverb gives us the answer: Good understanding giveth favor

2. So lets see if we can get a good understanding of what is going on and thus be able to change things.

3. We will look at two areas

a. The Problem – Sin

b. The Answer – Salvation & Sanctification

4. May God grant us the joy of glorifying Him, Living as we should, and being the family He created us to be!

PRAY

Lets begin by becoming knowledgeable about

I. THE PROBLEM – SIN!

A. It’s Beginning – to see this we must return to Genesis

1. Genesis 1 & 2 record the creative acts of God

a. He created all things: sun, moon, stars, earth, land and sea; animals including amphibians and reptiles, birds, aquatic life and ultimately man.

b. He place man in the garden of Eden – a perfect place and gave them the responsibility for its up keep.

c. He gave man control over everything except one – they were not to eat of the fruit of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil

d. As God looked at it: “it was very good!”

2. But then in Genesis 3 a terrible thing happens

a. Genesis 3:4-6 And the serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die: [5] For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. [6] And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree to be desired to make one wise, she took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.

b. Adam and Eve violated God’s word – His law – they sinned!

c. The consequences were immediate

1) God cursed Adam – life would become hard

2) God cursed Eve – child labor would become hard

3) God’s curse brought both Adam and Eve immediately spiritual death and eventually physical death: communication with God became hard.

4) God cursed the earth – fruit bearing would become hard

3. Sin made everything hard!

4. But what started with them did not stay with them, for we see its

B. Present Manifestation In Us

1. Rom 5:12 states, Wherefore, as by one man (Adam) sin entered into the world, and death by sin; and so death passed upon all men, for that all have sinned: