This is manuscript and Audio from a sermon I preached a couple of sundays ago. Enjoy!
http://www.kaleochurch.com/sermon/the-four-gs-god-is-glorious-ben-porter/
God is Glorious
Today we are going to tackle the issues of sin. Sin is a biblical word which means all of our neagtive behaviour, negative emotions, evil motives and oppressive addictions. It is a catch all word which allows us to put in all the same bag, all of the junk that comes out of us.
Particularly, we are going to be talking today about how we can actually live a life un mastered by sin. You will not be abe to live with an absence of sin in this life, but you can live a life of pereptual and gradual change. You can experince a liberation of your heart from the things which hav always kept you captive.
Some of you may have just flinched becasue you might not think that I have the ability to gaurantee this; or you may have snickered at the audacity of that comment; but if you leave here today with one thing I hope that it is that you can change.
What are some of these things that you feel trapped with?
For me its love-There have been times where i have ripped my wifes heart apart because I have not loved her well. I have not considered her above others.
But These entrapments are so prevelant that any person wandering around in reality can tell you that they exist, but we all have different ways of dealing with them dont we?
What do you do?
Many of us pretend that they dont exist. We push our issue to the margins and let them be out of site and out of mind. We like to believe that our problems and issues are ours alone, that they dont effect any other person around me. We arrive at a place where we actually think that if I dont care about them, then no one else will. When this is actually very untrue isnt it? No man or woman is an island. We so obviously walk hand in hand with others and our very selves- our issues- bump in to others. We dont have to be in a romantic relationship for very long to see his do we? Allow yourselves to wander back in your memories to old girlfirends and boyfriends. Which one of them were not affected by the your sin?
Some of us try and deal with them by shear force of will. We are those who see our sin probably most clearly. When i descibed that first person, you were certain you were not him.We know how much we have effected others, we know the damaging affects of our sin. Our answer is this; that we must deal with it! Work and it will go away. We try to construct ways of leveredging ourselves out of sin. This at many times results in self denial, self loathing, and immense frustration. The truth is, is that we cannot do it. Those men out there who have struggled with porn and masterbation, how many of you have sinned, hated yourself, and then tried to construct some assinine way of not allowing yorself to fall back again, only to do just that. Or you women with fathers who were absent, cruel or even abusive; no matter how may times you tell yourself that you can trust your husband or boyfriend does it ever work. Have you overcome your sin?
The truth is that you cannot beat your sin down because it is coming from within you. And you cannot ignore it or you will hurt many and your life will be a destructive force, damaging everyone.You cannot address the issue because you are the issue. It is insanity and foolishness to overcome the works of our own heart. We will return to it, over and over again without fail.
It is for this reason that we hold that the gospel is the only asnwer to our sin. We at Kaleo believe that the gospel addresses every issue in our life. And to tell you the truth, you wont receive much out of this sermon if you do not side with us on that. And the gospel is this: that Jesus Christ, Gods proclaimed rescuer and ruler has come to cancel our debt against God by living our life and dying our death, then rising again in victory over our sin. In many ways, the gospel is who Jesus is and What he has done for us on our behalf. It is this truth that can only overcome sin because it is not a change that comes from within us. It comes to us. Christ was perfect where we sin. But not only that, he inspires us with his love to be obedient and joyful as we are empowered by the holy spirit. It is the help that we need.
We are going to spend the rest of our time examining how that works itself out on a day to day basis. In order to better understand how the gospel is the change we need, we must first examine Jesus and what his answer to change was. The astonishing thing was about Jesus is that he did not come proclaiming a 12 step program for change. In fact he did almost the opposite. He laid out a system of change which is so different from anything that came before him and anything that came after him. It was so different and radicle, that he was killed by those who took offense to it.
John 3 is a radical account of Jesus and his definition and method for change. A religous official, names Niccodemus presumably afraid of losing his reputation, sneeks to Jesus at night in order to ask him a series of questions about entering the kingdom of Heaven. Someting to keep in mind is that the Jewish system of morality had everything to do with their country. They believed that God had created Israel to show the world what He was like. They also believed that a redeemer was going to come and solidify that demonstration of Gods character and enact the kingdom of God. But Israel had been sinful and had fallen short of what it should have been. When Niccodemus asks, how shall I enter the kingdom he is essentially asking, how do I change? How do enter the kingdom which is perfect like God? We have messed up, how do we get this right?
Jesus' answer is astonishing. He says, ''You cannot enter the kingdom unless you have been born again''. Niccodemus, then very confused, sarcastically asks how that could be possible. ''How can a man be born when he is old? Should he enter a second time into his mothers womb?''. Niccodemus's response almost sounds rational does it not? Would you have responded much differently? Jesus however, undonted by Niccodemus's sarcasm, responds that we must be born again. If we are born again, then we can approach the kingdom. Then we can change. He says that he must die for us, and that will change our hearts by the power of his spirit because of the love poored out for us.
In John 3, Jesus is essentially saying that the problem is our heart. We are a bad a seed. We are not made of the right stuff. We cant make the mark. We live inside a cultural story that says you can do anything and if there is a problem you have the right stuff to fix it. 'You can do it! ' Jesus would have soundly disagreed.
You see, Jesus was responding out of cultural story, in fact he goes on to say that he is the author of that story. But in order to best understand what he was talking about we must go back to that story so we can find out what is at the root of our sin, why do we need to be born again?
The story goes like this: God in all power and beauty, bubbeled up in creative impulse and created the universe. He literally sang the universe into existance. He did this day by for six days. He created the moon, the stars, earth and everything that fills it. He declared it all good. He created humans as the centerpeice of his creation. The great crown jewel of his beautiful masterpiece. Humans were made in his own image and reflected his attributes. Man was to cultivate and populate earth all the while displaying and mirroring their beautiful and wonderful creator. Their joy and life was to be a glorification of God. All of their security and hope was solid in who God is. However, this changed and altered everything.
It is here that we will pick it up in Genesis 3... this effected who they were. It effected their heart. In fact, it re created there hearts.
Note: Tell the story of the fall and read the story from genesis 3:1-13
What were Adam and Eve saying about God when they did this.
That God isnt good
This is an accusation and accusations come from the heart. They are a moral (or immoral) position about what you think of the person being accused.
You see, the true evil in this passage didnt start with what Adam and Eve did, it started with they believed. It started with their hearts. God, the ruler and creator of all matter, is neither foolish or capricious. He has no desire to set up arbitrary rules which have no reason. The tree in the garden is not a silly powerplay by God. It was sprouted to show that there can be disbelief. It was there, starkly reminding man what life could be like without the beautiful assurance of truth about God. It stood as a momument to Gods goodness- reminding everyone what horrible atrocities lay at the feet of those who would accuse God with lies.
It is in spite of that that man rebelled. But they rebelled not by simply breaking a silly rule. They rebelled by accusing God of soemthing that wasnt true. They accused him, inspite of all that was given to them. And this is sin.
Here is when our Hearts changed. Adam when he sinned, seared mans hearts with an accusation, burning and maiming them irepreably. In a way our hearts were recreated that day. They were recreated into the image of Adams heart. Where there once was an obedient joyful child, filled with wonderment and excitement, ther was now a bitter and depressed old man, selfish in all of his ways. Our hearts no longer want to believe the truth about God.
This works itself out in devestating ways in all avenues of life. Everything we once did was once defined by God and his love. We still dont exist outside of the relationship we have with God. But when we rebelled, when we accused God, we abandoned the very thing that defined us. We have no hope or peace because we lost it. We rebelled against it. We tell people lies to make ourselves look better because we have accused God of not being sufficient, and therefore untrustworthy. At the root of our sin is a lie.
Jesus is the only one who can alter this vicious cycle of destructive behaviour and desapair. Jesus Returns our hearts back to the image of God. When adam sinned he seared our collective human hearts. Ever after, they were recreated in his image. We as humanity were plunged into despair and sin. Once we a were a people whose hearts were created after the image of God, now we are a people whose hearts have been recreated in the image of Adam- angry, fist shaking image bearers of our earthly father.
But that is why we need Christ! Jesus comes to make our hearts new! He, reverses the work of Adam and allows us to be made new and capable of trusting in God once again. It only comes through faith, as we trust in Jesus to graciously give us all things. It is at that point that our hearts are re made for the last time in the image of God. Think of it as an exchange. When Jesus went on the cross he exchanged his perfect believing heart for my evil, unbelieving one. He now covers my sin becasue he took my punishment.
Read Romans 5:12, 14, 15, 17
We can finnaly be returned to ones who can trust in God and his promises. And if we are believers of those things then we will see our sins die daily.
You see, once we believe in Christ we are forever freed up to believe truth about God again. We are no longer angry fist shakers, but now we are once again loving children. It is for this reason that we will be going through the 4 G's these next couple weeks in our gatherings The four G's are this: God is Great- So we dont have to be in control, God is good- so we dont have to look elsewhere, God is Gracious- so we dont have to prove ourselves, and Finnaly, God is glorious- so we dont have to fear others. The 4 G's are not even by a long shot all of the attributes of God, however, they represent a powerful tool to diagnose our hearts and see exactly what we are accusing God of.
Some of you maybe thinking, I allready know those things, but do you?
A strange thing about our thought as westerners, is that we consider knowledge seperate from what we can feel. We think feeling has nothing to do with our ability to know. That is impericism, and its not the bible. The bible shows that true knowledge is bound up holistically and involves your heart and your soul and your mind. I was just married. If you were to ask me to write a paper on marriage or tell you about it, before i was married, i would have done it. And I would have been totally satisfied with my answer. I think back on that confidence and laugh! I can assure you, it was not until I was actually married and was sharing a sink with Katie every day that I actually began to know what being married was. It was not until I was participating and living in that knowledge daily that I actually knew.
It is the same thing with God. We may be able to affirm all of these theological truths about God, but do you actually live in them. Lets take a pole, raise you hands if you affirm that Jesus raised from the dead in power over your sin and death? Now, Who has had money wories? But wait a second, i thought you believed that Jesus had power over sin? Doesnt he have power over death!? Wouldnt he have power over your bank account?
We must be a community which graciously reminds one another in these truths that are in Christ. In him we can overcome sin.
This week we will be looking at ' God is glorious, so I dont have to fear others'
What is Glory?
Glory is the experience of Gods attributes. The glory of God is the splendor and majesty of God himself, as we behold his nature and abilities.
In order to get a sense of Gods glory we must see and encounter him in his spirits work in us, community, and scripture. Lets take a minute take a walk through these things to see and experience the glory of God.
What glorious things has God done in your life?
In the bible we see so may instances of Gods glory being displayed. Where do we see Gods glory in scripture?
Texts like: Ezekial 1:4-14; 22-28, Revelations 1:9-18
God in all his glory is beautiful and terryfying, You see, true glory is always terryfying. When you see it, you know that you have encountered something which is inescapibly more powerful and better then you. All you have is to hope that it will not destroy you.
Now, if this is the God that created us in perfect subjection to him, then what happens when we rebel against this truth. What happens when we call him not glorious.
What happens when we accuse God of not being Glorious?
We fear others.
What happens when we fear others?
We ''need'' things from our spouses
We dont function until we are loved in a certain way because if we arent then we know that they hate us.
We are concerned with self esteem
This is one that we could spend an entire sermon on but it is worth it to say that those who are most concerned with self esteem are those who are most insecure. The word is repeated like a montra but is unable to change you.
We are over commited because we cant say no
We are so worried about what other people are thinking about us that our schedules fill up to the brim and our lives unravel before our eyes.
We are afraid of being exposed and we peform white lies to make ourselves look good.
Our entire lives are giant orchestrations to cover our tracks and make ourselves look good to people that we respect.
People mak us jealous, angry, anxous, and depressed.
We avoid people
We begin to be crushed under the fear of others. We so concerned about all of the expectiations of everyone that it begins to not be worth it anymore. So leave, we check out. We avoid people.
We compare ourselves with others
You see, we actually become what we fear. There is something in us that almost adores ina sick way, that shich we are scared of. The batman series is like this. We are fine tuned to be afraid of God but when we put that fear in people we want to emulate them. Then we start to compare ourselves. The problem is, that we can never match up and we despair.
We cannot be on mission becasue we are afraid of speaking the name of Jesus to people.
Now, what must we do in order to see this dibilitating sin fall? We must believe the truth about God. John 12:42-43 describes an instance where Jesus is in the last couple days of his life, and he is sitting down at a festivle eating. Overcome by the expectation of his sure future on the cross, he cries out ''father, glorify your name!'' . Then God responds verbally to the festival, '' I have glorified it, and I will glorify it again''. The people at this festival are terrified and know for certain that God has spoken. However, they tell know one, fearing the elders of the city. This passage sites their disobedience like this, '' they loved the glory that came from man more then the glory that comes from God''
The problem is an exchange of glory. The problem is that you ascribe those people who you so want to impress with the glory that should be for God. You hang Gods glory on them.
Do you remember the wonderful texts that i read pertaining to Gods glory? Here is another. But as I am reading it, I want everyone to close there eyes and visualize a person or persons who you are afraid of. Ill give you a second, ok got them? Now as I am reading this passage, I want you to compare that person,with the person I am about to describe.
Here we go, Revelation 19:11-16, 9-10
Do you guys understand what I am trying to get at? God is so glorious and perfect. And when we are living in a community that is sincerely reminding one another of this truth then we will see our sin die daily! Because when you rightly see God as Glorious, you will see the cross so much more wonderfully. You will trust that God loves you and that you are approved because you will hold with weight the gift of glory gi[ven to you by Jesus. Then you will not see yourself as the worthless sinner, unable to say no. You will be the son or daughter of God, gloriously loved and empowered by the spirit. Then and only then will you be able to change.
