Here is a brief note that I wrote to our ministry leadership team on this issue.
In phase two of our teaching this year we will be covering man and his problem with sin. Even though it can be hard to look at sin, especially our own, it becomes necessary in order to marvel at the grace of God displayed in the Lord Jesus on the cross. My devotion time is now in the book of Jeremiah. If you get a chance sometime within the next week look at Jereemiah 2:13:
"For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me,
The fountain of living waters,
To hew for themselves cisterns,
Broken cisterns
That can hold no water."
Do you see the two-fold effects of sin?
1. Sin will turn a person away from God as the primary satisfaction of their soul. Sin is a liar that makes promises it can not keep. Look carefully at what the Lord Jesus said in John 6:35 - "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. What does that mean? Have you ever worked out, or cut the grass in the blazing heat and been very, very thirsty for something to drink? When you were drinking that ice cold water, iced tea, or gatorade what was that doing to your thirst? Maybe the word someone would use would be it quenched your thirst, or you could say that it satisfied your thirst. In the verse above the Lord Jesus is comparing coming to Him with believing in Him. So to believe in the Lord Jesus is to be satisfied with Him in such a way that He quenches the thirst of our soul. Now go back to Jeremiah's words in Chapter 2 and look at these people. They have forsaken the very living water that will satisfy the thirst of their souls. This according to God is a sin! But it does not stop there, keep reading.
2. These people get their satisfaction in other things and those other things are like water pots that have nothing but cracks in them.
Application especially for affluent American Christians
- We have so much that can satisfy us, that it is easy to be satisfied with those things instead of allowing the Lord Jesus to be the One who can quench the thirst in our souls.
- We can be so focused on these things such as homes, cars, jobs, 401 K's, lifestyle, beach homes, entertainment and recreation, that we become satisfied with the very things that do not satisfy at all. As a matter of fact God compares these other things to water pots that can't even hold water.
Now does that give us a clear definition of sin? It is man finding ultimate satisfaction in things other than the Lord Jesus Christ!
Hear these words from Psalm 119:33-37:
33 Teach me your decrees, O Lord;
I will keep them to the end.
34 Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions;
I will put them into practice with all my heart.
35 Make me walk along the path of your commands,
for that is where my happiness is found.
36 Give me an eagerness for your laws
rather than a love for money!
37 Turn my eyes from worthless things,
and give me life through your word.
We must learn to pray consistently that the Lord would incline our hearts to Himself each and every day and turn us from anything that is evil.
In phase two of our teaching this year we will be covering man and his problem with sin. Even though it can be hard to look at sin, especially our own, it becomes necessary in order to marvel at the grace of God displayed in the Lord Jesus on the cross. My devotion time is now in the book of Jeremiah. If you get a chance sometime within the next week look at Jereemiah 2:13:
"For My people have committed two evils:
They have forsaken Me,
The fountain of living waters,
To hew for themselves cisterns,
Broken cisterns
That can hold no water."
Do you see the two-fold effects of sin?
1. Sin will turn a person away from God as the primary satisfaction of their soul. Sin is a liar that makes promises it can not keep. Look carefully at what the Lord Jesus said in John 6:35 - "I am the bread of life; he who comes to Me will not hunger, and he who believes in Me will never thirst. What does that mean? Have you ever worked out, or cut the grass in the blazing heat and been very, very thirsty for something to drink? When you were drinking that ice cold water, iced tea, or gatorade what was that doing to your thirst? Maybe the word someone would use would be it quenched your thirst, or you could say that it satisfied your thirst. In the verse above the Lord Jesus is comparing coming to Him with believing in Him. So to believe in the Lord Jesus is to be satisfied with Him in such a way that He quenches the thirst of our soul. Now go back to Jeremiah's words in Chapter 2 and look at these people. They have forsaken the very living water that will satisfy the thirst of their souls. This according to God is a sin! But it does not stop there, keep reading.
2. These people get their satisfaction in other things and those other things are like water pots that have nothing but cracks in them.
Application especially for affluent American Christians
- We have so much that can satisfy us, that it is easy to be satisfied with those things instead of allowing the Lord Jesus to be the One who can quench the thirst in our souls.
- We can be so focused on these things such as homes, cars, jobs, 401 K's, lifestyle, beach homes, entertainment and recreation, that we become satisfied with the very things that do not satisfy at all. As a matter of fact God compares these other things to water pots that can't even hold water.
Now does that give us a clear definition of sin? It is man finding ultimate satisfaction in things other than the Lord Jesus Christ!
Hear these words from Psalm 119:33-37:
33 Teach me your decrees, O Lord;
I will keep them to the end.
34 Give me understanding and I will obey your instructions;
I will put them into practice with all my heart.
35 Make me walk along the path of your commands,
for that is where my happiness is found.
36 Give me an eagerness for your laws
rather than a love for money!
37 Turn my eyes from worthless things,
and give me life through your word.
We must learn to pray consistently that the Lord would incline our hearts to Himself each and every day and turn us from anything that is evil.
