Consequences 1 – What is Sin?

Message Date: August 21, 2019
Bible

Consequences 1

What is Sin?

Romans 6:15-23

15 Well then, since God’s grace has set us free from the law, does that mean we can go on sinning? Of course not! 16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, or you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living. 17 Thank God! Once you were slaves of sin, but now you wholeheartedly obey this teaching we have given you. 18 Now you are free from your slavery to sin, and you have become slaves to righteous living.

19 Because of the weakness of your human nature, I am using the illustration of slavery to help you understand all this. Previously, you let yourselves be slaves to impurity and lawlessness, which led ever deeper into sin. Now you must give yourselves to be slaves to righteous living so that you will become holy.

20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right.21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom. 22 But now you are free from the power of sin and have become slaves of God. Now you do those things that lead to holiness and result in eternal life. 23 For the consequences of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord.

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We try to combat the consequences (symptoms) but not the root cause.

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The two polar opposites help explain what sin is:

16 Don’t you realize that you become the slave of whatever you choose to obey? You can be a slave to sin, which leads to death, OR you can choose to obey God, which leads to righteous living.

Obedience is not a weight to bear but a tool to resist sin and keep alive. Not physically but emotionally and spiritually.

Sin is therefore disobedience to God.

Is sin an action?

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Consequences of Sin

15 The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it.16 But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— 17 except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”

DISATISFIED

When we begin to entertain what is best for us without hearing the Word of God – we make decisions that move us from a place of association (obedience) to a place of opposition (disobedience).

“Don’t touch that” human nature – we touch it!

God wants us to obey him (opposite of sin) not so we blindly follow him, but so that the divine equation is true:

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Divine equation – obedience = life

Obedience is not about conforming to a law (death) but expressing freedom (life)

Sin = anything we do to distance our selves from God.

Consequence = shame, guilt and condemnation

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Work it back – shame guilt and condemnation comes from not fully expressing God in your life – something in your life is undermining your relationship with God.

Everything in the spiritual realm is direct opposites.

God is love. -> Obedience to love (God) = life

Therefore to love is to live.

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If love covers a multitude of sin

Sin covers a multitude of love

If love of God is life -> Sin covers life.

The moment we knowingly or subconsciously deny God – there is death. That death results in the consequence of shame and guilt.

Shame and guilt in turn cause us the die some more which causes us to disassociate ourselves from God even more.

Genesis 3:20

20 When you were slaves to sin, you were free from the obligation to do right.21 And what was the result? You are now ashamed of the things you used to do, things that end in eternal doom.

Then we try to cover over the shame and guilt by trying to do things that we think make ourselves feel better – even for a moment = addictions, perversions, immoral behavior, even illness and sickness.

Shame causes more consequences

SIN is not consequences.

Sin is stepping away from our relationship with God.

Addictions are not sin they are the consequence of a consequence.

Hiding behind something (addiction) is exactly what Adam and Eve did.

Genesis 3:8-11

When the cool evening breezes were blowing, the man[a] and his wife heard the Lord God walking about in the garden. So they hid from the Lord God among the trees. Then the Lord God called to the man, “Where are you?”

10 He replied, “I heard you walking in the garden, so I hid. I was afraid because I was naked.”

11 Who told you that you were naked?” the Lord God asked. “Have you eaten from the tree whose fruit I commanded you not to eat?” (Have you been disobedient…)

Everything from that point was a consequence:

Lack of worth

Lack of self confidence

Blame

Hiding away (drugs alchohol) – “drink myself into a hole”

Shame is the ultimate weapon that Satan has.

He does not even need to create it He just has to get us to think we know better. When we think we have the right to chose – we immediately disassociate ourselves from Gods supremacy, we place ourselves on the throne. The moment we do that – Satan knows shame and condemnation follow:

The Sin loop begins.

Human rights

Gay rights

Sex workers rights

The moment there was disobedience God made a way out:

14 Then the Lord God said to the serpent,

“Because you have done this, you are cursed
    more than all animals, domestic and wild.
You will crawl on your belly,
    groveling in the dust as long as you live.

15 

And I will cause hostility between you and the woman,
    and between your offspring and her offspring.
He will strike[b] your head,
    and you will strike his heel.”

JESUS!!!!!!