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06.28.09

13th Sunday in Ordinary Time

SERMON SERIES: QUESTIONS FOR GOD

SERIES 3: VOCATION/FAITHFULNESS IN LIFE & WITNESS

PART 3: WHY DO WE STRAY?

PROVERBS 3:1-8; JAMES 1:12-18

• The Problem of Sin
• The Constant Battle
• Where does evil come from?
• That’s a question humanity has struggled to answer since our fall from grace
• Adam and Eve had the perfect life
• They lived in a lavish garden which provided them with everything they would ever need
• They lived there in complete innocence, enjoying a perfect relationship with each other and with God
• Things such as sin and evil, hatred and prejudice, crime of any kind, sickness,, suffering and death were not a part of their world
• They could spend their days enjoying the fruits of the lavish garden in which they lived, fellowshipping with God, and cherishing the wonderful life God gave them
• But all that changed in a moment’s time—in an instant, Paradise was lost
• Gone was their innocence, their security, and their fellowship with God
• Ahead of them lay a life of hardship
• The world became more different than they could ever have imagined
• Evil replaced the goodness of God, innocence was replaced with guilt and shame, abundance was replaced with poverty, luxury was replaced with hard work, and the possibility of living forever in the presence of God was replaced with sickness, suffering, and death
• And it didn’t take long for Adam and Eve to recognize the error of their ways when their son Abel was murdered by his brother Cain
• How they must have longed for things to be different—for things to be as they used to be—but there was no going back; they had made their choice
• The question we are pondering today as we continue to ask questions of God and look at our own calling and faithfulness in life and witness is “Why do we stray?”
• What is it that causes us to turn away from God’s calling, to cave into temptation, to fall into sin?
• Why is it that we can’t be as faithful to God as God is to us?
• We know that the people God calls are flawed people—it’s been that way through the course of human history
• Moses had committed murder before God called him, and even while leading God’s people out of Egypt, Moses disobeyed a direct command of God that ultimately prohibited him from ever entering the Promised Land
• The great king David committed adultery with Bathsheba then had her husband killed to try to hide their infidelity
• Saul was a persecutor of Christians prior to his conversion, but even in his Christian life as Paul the apostle, he confesses to his ongoing struggle with sin
• Judas betrayed Jesus, Peter denied him, and the rest of the disciples fled in fear of their lives
• As much as we desire to be faithful to God and serve Jesus Christ, we constantly find ourselves wrestling with temptation, caving into sin, and straying from the path of life that Jesus calls us to follow
• We are no different from any of the heroes of past, so we can at least take comfort in the fact that we’re in good company
• The Source of Evil
• There are a number of theories about the origin of evil in the world
• One such theory is that Satan is the author of evil, and that the beginning of all sin was Satan’s lust for Eve
• In their encounter at the tree of the knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden, Satan placed the poison of his malice in the fruit and implanted the seed of lust into Eve, thereby inserting the evil tendency into humanity
• Another such theory is that the angels are responsible for sin
• In the great conflagration that occurred in heaven prior to the creation of the world, the angel Lucifer led a rebellion against God
• For their rebellion, Lucifer and his followers were cast out of heaven
• Since angels are beings created by God to serve God, their rebellion caused everything God created to be corrupt
• A third theory is that God is the creator of evil
• The argument goes that since God is the creator of all things, God also must have created the tendency toward evil
• The danger of this particular theory is obvious
• It means in the last analysis that we can blame God for our sin
• These theories continue to be prevalent in our culture today
• The evil we do, no matter how blatant or subtle, is never our fault
• Either the devil made us do it, or it’s the fault of our upbringing
• Someone or something else made us do what we did, but it’s never our fault
• And it’s not too great a stretch of the imagination to hold God responsible for our sin
• After all, God is the one who made us the way we are
• Ever since that first sin, humans have honed their skills at getting themselves off the hook by blaming someone else for the evil that exists in the world
• The Solution for Sin
• Trust in the Lord
• The writer of Proverbs and the writer of James give us a pretty clear picture of what’s really going on
• In seeking to answer this question “Why do we sin?” the first place for us to look is at ourselves
• Instead of seeking to blame our actions on someone or something else, the motivation to sin comes from within—from our selfish attitudes and desires
• The writer of Proverbs (whom we presume to be Solomon) is giving advice to his son
• He is teaching him how to be faithful to God and live an upright and prosperous life in the community
• There are four building blocks upon which Solomon is urging his son to build his life: love, faithfulness, trust in God, and humility
• He advises his son to keep love and faithfulness ever before him, to focus on them as he lives his life
• Living a life of love and faithfulness will win him favor before God and humanity
• The central point of his teaching is contained in verses 5-6
• It is trusting in the Lord with all his heart that will enable him to live this life of love and faithfulness
• Then Solomon goes on to define exactly what trusting in the Lord with all your heart means
• It means being willing not to lean on our own understanding but to rely completely upon the wisdom and will of God
• The word used here for “lean” literally means “to prop up”
• So Solomon is urging his son not to prop himself up on his own wisdom, not to rely upon his own knowledge and strength
• He is giving him a warning against the attitudes of self-sufficiency and self-dependence, which have been the ruin of humanity since the fall
• In other words, he is advising his son not to seek to live independently from God
• To do so will be to miss all the blessings God wants to give
• The order of Solomon’s words is of great importance, for they build one upon another
• Love is the primary virtue
• To live a life of love is the goal of every human life
• Only as we are faithful to God do we experience the love of God
• Only as we are faithful to God can we be faithful to others
• The next word is trust, and trust is different from faithfulness
• It is right for trust to come after faith for trust is a product of faith
• To live in faith means that we believe that God the Father and Christ the Son exist
• Trust means that we know without a doubt that they will do what they say they will do
• It is love and faithfulness and trust that develops in us the attitude of humility
• Only when we realize that we cannot be wise in our own eyes and are willing to completely trust in God will we have the health and strength and nourishment for living
• Solomon’s answer to the question “Why do we stray?” would be this: we stray because we have not learned to trust in the Lord with all our heart
• What leads us to sin is our reliance on our own self-sufficiency
• We know better than God what’s best for us
• As long as the center of our life continues to be ourselves, sin will continue to control us
• Don’t Blame God
• The writer of James deals directly with the question “Where does evil come from?” and focuses specifically on the belief that God is responsible for evil
• In the first chapter of his letter, James makes a distinction between testing and temptation
• What James says is that God does allow testing to come into our life because testing is one of the means God uses to bring us to maturity in our faith
• Notice what James says in verses 3-4: “the testing of your faith develops perseverance.  Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything.”
• In verse 12, he says that when we persevere under trial we will receive the crown of life that God has promised to give to those who love him
• That crown isn’t a heavenly reward we will wear on our head in the kingdom of God
• Instead, it is a better quality of life, a more fulfilling life in the here and now
• It is the abundant life that Jesus promised to give to all who believe
• On the other hand, James says, temptation does not come from God or even from the devil
• God is perfect and pure and holy, and cannot be tempted, nor does God tempt anyone
• The devil, James would say, can’t tempt us either because the devil has no power over us
• God’s power is greater than the devil’s power, so it is beyond the power of the devil to lead us into sin
• Where evil comes from is from the human heart
• Sin and evil entered the world because we have succumbed to our own evil desires
• Those desires drag us away from God and entice us
• Once desire is conceived, it gives birth to sin, and the final result of sin is death
• By death, James means eternal separation from God
• To solidify his point, James continues by saying that God is the author of good, but not of evil
• Every good gift comes from God—God only wants what is best for us
• God may test us at times to strengthen our faith, but God will never tempt us to sin
• The desire of God’s heart is that we have fellowship with God rather than to be separated from God
• The reason God sent Jesus into the world was to remove sin so we might have fellowship with God
• Since this is God’s supreme desire, and since God provided the means for us to have fellowship with God through Jesus Christ, it makes no sense that God would ever put anything in front of us that would ever separate us from God again
• Why do we stray?
• We stray because we rely on ourselves more than we rely on God
• We stray because we give into the selfish desires we harbor in our heart
• We stray because we think we can do a better job at managing our life than God
• Thanks be to God that God is a God of mercy and grace
• God loves us so much that God sent the Son to save us from ourselves
• Thanks be to God that forgiveness is always available
• Thanks be to God that God has given us the Holy Spirit to lead us into a new way of life, and give us the strength we need to live it