What Ever Happened to Sin?

"Whatever happened to sin?" I wish you could hear me ask that question in the quiet of my mind. If you could, then you would understand that I am asking it like sin was an old friend who lived down the hall from me in college, someone that I would expect to bump into on FaceBook. I ask about it like it's someone that I used to spend time with and, because our paths went in different directions, we've simply lost touch.

I ask that question not because I'm too good to sin, I'm not. Much to my chagrin, I am as fully capable of falling today as I ever have been.

For me the question is far more communal than personal. I'm asking you, too! Have you heard about sin? Where did it go? When I was growing up I heard all kinds of sermons on it. I heard as much about sin as I did grace and love. Because I recognized the presence of sin I longed for the presence of grace and love.

Thinking through this, I decided to look at the last five years of my preaching calendar. Of the 250+ sermons I preached, surely I could find some that included "sin" in their titles. Guess what: The search yielded a series of sermons titled, "What's Missing?" Can you believe that? I'll tell you what's missing ....

Sin is missing from our collective conversations. It is politically incorrect and and therefore taboo. If we talk about sin then we are too negative and too narrow. To point out sin is judgmental and arrogant and so we avoid it like the plague. The only problem is that sin is the problem, and it needs to be identified.

Sin is not really missing, it's just hidden in plain sight. Sin is ...

• killing babies and calling it choice
• blowing up abortion clinics and calling it justice
• racking up credit card debt and calling it priceless
• living together before marriage and calling it cheaper
• looking out for No. 1 and calling it the American dream
• having an affair and calling it deserved
• eating too much and calling it a celebration
• talking bad about people and calling it a prayer request
• avoiding home and calling it providing for the family
• neglecting worship and calling it time to ourselves

In his book, Not the Way it is Supposed to Be, Neal Plantinga writes, "Sin is the missing of a target, a wandering from the path, a straying from the fold. Sin is a hard heart and a stiff neck. Sin is blindness and deafness. It is both the overstepping of a line and the failure to reach it -- both transgression and shortcoming. Sin is a beast crouching at the door. In sin, people attack or evade or neglect their divine calling. Sin is never normal. Sin is a disruption of created harmony and then resistance to divine restoration of that harmony. Above all, sin disrupts and then resists the vital human relation to God."

Whether we talk about it or not, the evidence of sin is all around us. It is stealing, killing, and destroying life as it was divinely designed. Things are not the way they are supposed to be. The irony is that, instead of blaming men and their sin for the problems and suffering we experience, the world we live in blames the God we believe in. The end result is that because of sin, God and sin have become figments of the imagination.

Understand, I am in no way suggesting that we pick up our rocks of righteousness and begin stoning our neighbors. I don't think we need to return to the days of hell-fire and brimstone preaching. I'm certainly not asking for a revival of judgmental sin-speak that alienates the church from the culture we are called to reach.

What I am asking for is a reduction of sin in the church. Wouldn't it be cool if we had fewer sin addicts? Wouldn't God's kingdom come and his will be done more if we sinned less? Like they say in AA: to solve a problem you have to admit you have one. Can we admit we have a problem?

If we are going to talk about sin, calling it what it is, let's talk about it in-house. Let's get the church that enjoys the forgiveness of sin to begin living victoriously over sin. Then we will see that the compelling story of positive life-change inside the church will lead to transformation outside the church.

The Ingredients of a Life Well-lived

I missed writing last week because I made a trip to my hometown, Walhalla, South Carolina. While I have heard rumors of Internet access there, I have yet to confirm them so I took the week off. For the four of you that care, my apologies.

I made the trip because after 90 years of unwavering consistency my grandmother went home to be with the Lord. Her name was Mattie Eliza Wilson. She is survived by my grandfather Clayton and 55 others who knew her as mother, grandmother or great-grandmother. If ever there was a group of people who understand the concept of a true matriarch, these 55 people get it.

I've heard that no one is perfect so I guess it's true, but my grandmother made a run at it. She was a wonderfully dependable, perfectly predictable follower of Jesus. Her love language was selflessness. If there was a need she met it. If there was a void she filled it. If there was confusion she cleared it up. If you needed some advice she gave it, whether you asked for it or not.

I think if Jesus had spoken at her funeral he would have described her as great. She fit his description to a tee: "Whoever wants to be great among you, must be your servant." While I am certain that the pursuit of greatness never made it on her to-do list, it was her reality. She was a true servant who never allowed unfavorable circumstances or personal inconvenience to interfere with her pursuit of others' happiness.

At the end of the day my grandmother really cared about two things: living for Jesus and caring for others. By all accounts, these are the ingredients of a life well lived.

"Charm is deceptive and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised." (Proverbs 31:30).

The Parent Trap

We've been going through a sermon series at Skycrest titled "Reel Families." The idea is to take titles of well known movies and build the talk around them. Yesterday we explored The Parent Trap. The whole talk was essentially an interview with T. C. and Rebecca Staton who are two of the most effective parents I know anything about. (If you weren't there it is really worth a listen at www.skycrestfamily.org.)

In in preparing this study, I became convinced of an aspect of parenting I had previously thought little about--parental discipline. As I read through the book of Proverbs, I rediscovered the familiar encouragements and benefits of disciplining children for the child's sake.

Proverbs 19:18
Discipline your son, for in that there is hope; do not be a willing party to his death.

Proverbs 23:13-14
Do not withhold discipline from a child; if you punish him with the rod, he will not die. Punish him with the rod and save his soul from death.

Reading those verses reminded and even reinspired me about the benefits of discipline for my children. But it wasn't until I read Proverbs 29:17-18 that it all fell into place for me.

Proverbs 29:17-18
Discipline your son, and he will give you peace; he will bring delight to your soul. Where there is no revelation, the people cast off restraint; but blessed is he who keeps the law.

I would imagine I've heard no less than 15 sermons on Proverbs 29:18. The NAS says, "Where there is no vision the people are unrestrained ...." The talks are always about cultivating vision for the future and then working towards it. But as I read verse 18 in context with verse 17, my understanding about what Solomon was teaching began to change.

At first I saw it as an echo to the other proverbs as it related to my children and discipline: If they are disciplined throughout life they will be blessed. But then I realized this verse was not about the benefits of discipline to my children. This verse was about the benefits of discipline to me!

Look at verse 17 again. Who gets the peace? Whose soul is delighted? The parent's! From that perspective it's clear that verse 18's invitation to cultivate vision as a means to restraint is for the parent. The idea is that parents need to have a vision of the benefits of discipline so they will be disciplined in their parenting. And the promise is that if a parent is disciplined in keeping the law as it relates to training their children, then they will be blessed.

The laws of sowing and reaping apply to raising children. You cannot reap what you do not sow. If you aren't disciplined as a parent, then you will not have discplined children. If you don't consistently honor God and His word in disciplining and discipling your children, then they won't honor God and His word as they respond.

The Parent Trap that we identified yesterday was the trap of being a reactive parent. This is parenting with emotions only, always responding to your children based upon the level of agitation or embarassment they cause. Needless to say, reactive parenting is extremely undisciplined and unpredictable. The boundaries are always moving based on your mood and the result is that the child can't gain any traction or confidence because they never know where they stand.

On the other hand, God's word teaches proactive parenting which has a vision for the value of discipline for both parent and child. It is not easy. It demands prayer, creativity, intentionality, authenticity, and a willingness to make the difficult decision to hold your kids accountable for their actions. Hebrews 12:11 casts a compelling vision for disciplined parenting. "No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it."

It is always a challenge to discipline yourself to be a parent and not just a friend to your children, but in the end disciplined discipline is a gracious act of love that equips the child for God-honoring success in life.

Mulish Disposition

In my Wednesday night Bible study at Skycrest I have been teaching through the Samuels and have finally come to the soap opera that is David's home life. WOW! If only he had exercised a little vision, a little restraint, a little self-control, if only ....

But as you know, he didn't. When he should have been off leading the troops in Holy War against God's enemies, he was at home waging war against boredom. On that fateful afternoon boredom won and David and Bathsheba, Uriah, the royal family, the nation of Israel, and God's kingdom were all dealt a devastating blow whose repercussions would be felt for generations.

We know that for about a year David went on with business as usual until Nathan the prophet dropped by on God's behalf and told David that the jig was up, the secret was out. Nathan knew and, of course, God knew. David was going to have to pay because, as God put it, "You despised me." God couldn't allow himself to be mocked and David immediately began reaping the rotten fruit of his indiscretion.

Out of this period of devastation emerge two wonderful psalms. We are all familiar with Psalm 51. It is the song that David wrote as he dealt honestly with his sin, begging God to forgive him and restore the joy of his walk with God--the joy of God's salvation. But we may not be as familiar with the psalm that presumably followed this confession, Psalm 32.

Psalm 32 begins with David acknowledging the blessing of God's forgiveness and the fact that God holds no grudges once our sin has been dealt with. Then David describes what his life was like before he acknowledged the elephant in the room of his heart. "When I kept silent, my bones wasted away through my groaning all day long. For day and night your hand was heavy upon me; my strength was sapped as in the heat of summer." (Psalm 32:3-4)

The sin between he and God made David a shell of his former self. His unwillingness to acknowledge his sin was sucking the life right out of him because the hand of the Lord against him was suffocating his spirit. While he had convinced himself that he had gotten away with it on the outside, it was killing him on the inside. So God sent Nathan along in the lifeboat of truth to instigate the healing and the health of God's gracious forgiveness.

Now looking back, David teaches us how to avoid the painful lessons of unconfessed sin--don't be like a mule! Seriously, take a look at Psalm 32:9! "Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you." In order for us to avoid the unnecessary pain of unforgiven sin, we have to overcome our stubborn mulish tendencies and choose the self-discipline of confession.

David clearly did not do that. The day Nathan came he put the bit in David's mouth and led him back to the Lord. Now in retrospect, David realizes that this was a grace from God that he didn't deserve and may not even enjoy the next time. David's admonishment to the reader is to avoid that painful scenario by recognizing when God is inviting confession and offering the relief of reconciliation. "Therefore let everyone who is godly pray to you while you may be found ..." (Psalm 32:6)

David understood that the agony of his soul was an invitation from God. It was the healthy guilt that God sends that demands attention, that alerts us to the fact that now is the time that God can be found. When this gracious guilt is present, we must not choose a mulish disposition, stubbornly refusing to acknowledge our shortcomings. Instead, we should humble ourselves and admit to God our need for him so we can enjoy the blessings of his forgiveness.

Commanded to Fail

Recently I sat down and reread the story of the exodus. In the process I noticed something that caught me a bit off guard. God set Moses up to fail. As a matter of fact, God called, equipped, motivated, and even relocated Moses only to ensure in that his initial attempts would fail.

I am sure you know the story. Moses was the adopted prince of Egypt who was well in touch with his Hebrew heritage. One day as he was out visiting his people he saw an Egyptian abusing a Hebrew and in a fit of rage killed him and ditched the body in the sand. Word got back to Pharaoh who decided that Moses should die. Realizing the danger, Moses fled Egypt and ended up in Midian where he took a job as a shepherd watching the flocks of his eventual father-in-law Jethro. In search of food, Moses led the flock to the Mountain of God, Horeb. While he was there, God showed up in a burning bush and invited Moses to go back to Egypt and deliver his people from Egyptian slavery. There was a bit of a disagreement as to Moses' qualifications. Moses believed that he didn't have the right stuff, and God said, "EXACTLY! That's why you're the man." Eventually God convinced him, showed him some supernatural tricks he could do with his staff to help convince Pharaoh, and Moses and his family were off to Egypt!

Exodus 4:19-21 (NIV)
Now the LORD had said to Moses in Midian, "Go back to Egypt, for all the men who wanted to kill you are dead." 20 So Moses took his wife and sons, put them on a donkey and started back to Egypt. And he took the staff of God in his hand. 21 The LORD said to Moses, "When you return to Egypt, see that you perform before Pharaoh all the wonders I have given you the power to do. But I will harden his heart so that he will not let the people go."

Now I don't know if Moses thought like I think, but this idea of obeying to fail is not something I naturally gravitate to. As a matter of fact, fearing to fail is a much more apt description of my mindset. On more than one occasion I have uttered the words, "Failure is not an option." Yet when I look at this story I find God instructing Moses to brace himself for failure and rejection.

Why would God instruct us to do something that would ensure, at least initially, failure? There are probably a number of reasons, but I think that two transcend the rest: 1) God wants the glory; 2) There are lessons that we need to learn that only the laboratory of failure can teach us.

First, God wants the glory. Jesus told us that unless we abide in him we can accomplish nothing. And in Isaiah 57:15 we learn who God abides with: "For this is what the high and lofty One says--he who lives forever, whose name is holy: "I live in a high and holy place, but also with him who is contrite and lowly in spirit, to revive the spirit of the lowly and to revive the heart of the contrite."

God abides in heaven where He is always glorified. At the same time, He dwells with those who are contrite and lowly in spirit. Why? Because the contrite and lowly in spirit are not glory thieves. They have met with failure and have learned to appreciate success. Uninterrupted success makes a glory thief. The person who succeeds may not want it that way, they don't set out to steal God's glory, but the celebrity of success ultimately diminishes the recognition of God's role in a great work. If a person has never met with failure, people will begin to believe that success is dependent upon the leader and not God.

Second, there are lessons that we need to learn that can only be learned through failure. Robert F. Kennedy said, "Only those who dare to fail greatly can ever achieve greatly." Think about it and you will realize that the scripture is chock-full of great leaders who enjoyed colossal failure. However, it was in the crucible of failure that they were equipped to succeed.

Peter was divinely selected to be the leader of the twelve. On one occasion his great faith in Jesus compelled him to hop out of a boat in an attempt to walk on water. He was successful until he he took his eyes off of Jesus and began to sink. Lesson learned: Stay focused on the Lord!

On another occasion Peter was praised for revealing a truth that was clearly sent from God. He immediately followed that up with some unsolicited advice to Jesus, insisting that he NOT give in to dying. Jesus responded, "Get thee behind me Satan!" OUCH!!! Lesson learned: Following Jesus demands self-sacrifice!

Many times the lessons of failure give us the ingredients for success. When it comes to failure we need to amend our perspective: FAILURE IS NOT AN OPTION, IT IS A NECESSITY!

God Finally Speaks

As Job's friends insistence that Job was experiencing the judgment of God due to sin crescendos through the book, Job's plea narrows. He stops asking his friends to hear him out and turns his attention to God. In Job 13:22 he articulates his plea challenging God, "Then summon me and I will answer, or let me speak and you reply." His idea was that if he could just get an audience with the almighty, if God would just hear him out, he would acknowledge Job's righteousness and then would explain exactly what was going on.

As we wrap up here, we need to be settled on the fact that Job was not wrong. He was a righteous man. Remember when Satan sauntered into God's presence, it was God who called Satan's attention to Job: "Have you considered my servant Job? There is no one on earth like him; he is blameless and upright, a man who fears God and shuns evil" (Job 1:8). As I have pointed out before, Job was all that and a bag of chips! He was the bomb! So he knew that he wasn't being punished for some besetting sin. What he really wanted was for God to show up and let his friends know the truth, and, while he was at it, God could explain himself to the group.

While Job was asking for an explanation, God knew that what he needed was a revelation. Job knew some things about God but the problem was that he didn't have a sense of what he didn't know. What he knew was right, but it was woefully incomplete. In Job 38:2 God says, "Who is this that darkens My counsel with words without knowledge?" In other words, "WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? Your argument, while trimmed in eloquence, is laced with ignorance. You may know about me but you don't know me, Job."

In chapters 38-41 of the book, God issues 77 questions to Job to help him understand that you don't know what you don't know. In asking His questions, God never answers Job's. But he reveals himself to Job. At the end of the book Job recognizes that God is really all he ever needed. "My ears had heard of you, but now my eyes have seen you" (Job 42:5). Job still had questions but now he had God. And the bottom line for Job was that he would rather have life with God and questions than life without God and answers.

The Patience of Job?

When we hear talk of Job, the word that is attached to him is patience. His patience has become proverbial, how this man of impeccable integrity kept his faith in the midst of the most devastating storm imaginable. So tradition tells us that we should celebrate the patience of Job.

Where does that idea come from? I read the book and I'm not sure that what I see in Job is patience! In my home, when my boys are having a problem, any problem, they think they have to talk about it immediately. Without regard to what anyone else is doing or talking about, they interrupt, spewing forth an impassioned plea for relief. Sometimes their issue warrants attention, and sometimes we ask them to wait just a minute. Generally, one of two things happen: They either completely ignore our instruction and tell us the same story LOUDER or they wait about 15 seconds and ask if a minute is up. To this I almost always impatiently respond: Be patient!

The sign of their impatience is the interruption, the need to talk about it immediately. The fact that we make them wait doesn't indicate that they are patient, it indicates that we are in control and they have to wait whether they like it or not.

Job had to wait too. But that doesn't mean he was patient. God was in control. He was going to address Job when He was ready to address him. But any cursory reading of Job's monologues would lead one to conclude that Job was anxious for God's response.

Where does this concept of Job's patience originate? The first and only time that this word is specifically linked to Job in scripture is in James 5:11 (KJV); "Behold, we count them happy which endure. Ye have heard of the patience of Job, and have seen the end of the Lord; that the Lord is very pitiful, and of tender mercy." See, even James had heard of the patience of Job.

But upon further inspection, the original Greek word that is translated patience is best translated as endurance or perseverance. Point of fact, the word translated "endure" in the first part of the verse is the verb form of the same word that is translated "patience" in the second part.

You may think that I'm splitting hairs here, but to me endurance or perseverance is the way to go because endurance is heroic.

• Patience tolerates setbacks with indifference, endurance seeks to redeem them.
• Patience says, "Wake me up when it is over." Perseverance says, "I won't quit no matter what happens!"
• Patience sits back and waits quietly (without interruption) for the storm to pass while endurance sits up and engages the storm.
• Patience believes it will soon be over while endurance believes we will soon be better.

I think the NIV got it right when they chose to interpret James' words this way: "As you know, we consider blessed those who have persevered. You have heard of Job's perseverance and have seen what the Lord finally brought about. The Lord is full of compassion and mercy."

The heroic example of Job shines through his endurance. He persevered through the unthinkable with his faith intact. He may have begged for his day in court so he could state his case to God, but it was with full faith that he was bringing his case to the one true God. He never wavered on his faith, understanding that if he persevered, he would come out a better man in the end. "When he has tested me, I will come forth as gold." (Job 23:10)

A. W. Tozer put it this way in Roots of Righteousness, “It is doubtful whether God can bless a man greatly until He’s hurt him deeply.” Do you believe that?

James does. Using the same Greek word for perseverance, James writes this about our suffering: "Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything." James 1:2-4