UNDER THE STARS - Miniserie
MESSAGE BY PASTOR DANIEL PARK
FROM BETHANY BAPTIST IN RICHMOND, BC.
I invite you to pray with me, Father God hear our prayer, and we humbly cry before you as it's written, "Whatever you ask for in prayer, believing, you will receive" (Matt: 21 -22) and yes! we believe in you, we trust in you, and we think you are the maker of miracles. we are asking for healing for our dear members of our family and also dear friends who are suffering from illnesses in their lives fighting and suffering under a lot of pain, You know them by their names; (Gaby, Vicky, Nancy, Tere, Liz, Gloria, Stevie, Les, Miguel, Socrates, Kate, Sara's mom, ) as your precious children, strengthen them their faith in you with a miracle in their lives oh! Father God hear our prayer, and we also pray for all the people around the world especially the children, who are suffering from wars, devastation, hunger, pain, hate and disbelieve in you, we ask beloved Father God to strengthen their faith in you we know that you love them so much oh Father God hear our prayer, we ask you in the name of Our Lord of Lords and King of Kings you beloved son Jesus Christ. AMEN!
In a 2016 study by Barna, only one-third of American adults agreed that moral truth is absolute, meaning there is such a thing as definite right and wrong.
Our kids are growing up in a culture where right and wrong are considered subjective.
Kids hear lines such as “Know your truth” and “Do what’s right for you.”
Today, we learn that there is absolute right and wrong and God sets the standard.
We have a good and loving God who determines right and wrong and also loves us so much that He wants the very best for us.
It is much wiser to follow the standards of the One who created the world than to trust in ourselves to determine what is right and wrong.
1 - God is Good
All of creation is GOOD because God Himself is good.
There is nothing bad or wrong in Him, so everything He created shows His goodness.
He created the world exactly as it should be, but unfortunately, it didn’t stay perfect for long.
Sin or disobedience entered the world, and God’s perfect creation would be broken.
From the very beginning, though, God had a plan to send His Son Jesus to forgive sin and fix the brokenness.
God created everything to be GOOD so that He will have JOY in it - enjoy it
This is what it means to glorify and praise God - to give Him joy
Within creation, people are special because we are made in God's image.
Because of His goodness, we can live in joy with God and live in a relationship with Him.
A relationship that is not casual or temporary, but loving
As strong and intimate as between a parent and child
The best friends
Husband and wife
The first 2 people God created in His image were created to live as husband and wife
2 becoming one in love
As a mirror and example of people’s relationship with God
But this state of pure, goodness did not last
Eve, and then Adam disobeyed God by eating from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil
Something God expressly told them not to do
The consequence being death - a completely alien concept to them at that point
So sin, and death entered creation
Things aren’t so good anymore
God doesn’t seem so good anymore
At this point, some people might begin questioning God, His motive, and character.
Then I ask you, a hypothetical question:
Would you worship God if He was evil?
I’m pretty sure most people would say, NO!
We worship God because He is Good! Daniel, you gave a whole sermon teaching that God is good, this point is that God is good!
But this is a trick question, which reveals the fundamental “miss” in how we regard our relationship with God
The trap is the word, “IF,” which a lot of Christians live by
And has become a core of our spirituality and belief without us realizing it
If God is…
The presuppositional condition for our worship
How would you feel if someone loves you ONLY because you keep buying them nice things
That would not be a relationship and it would not be love
And if you say that you will worship God if He is good, what does that, “good” mean or look like anyway?
Often it is our definition of good
God is worthy of worship because He created us in His image, to enjoy us and for us to enjoy Him.
God is God - He is Good and determines what is Good He sets the rules because He made everything and everything is His
2. Sin is Not Good
Into a state of GOODNESS, sin enters the creation
And sin, is the root of evil
Isn’t it ironic that attaining the knowledge of Good and Evil was the beginning of evil
But you understand that the KNOWLEDGE of Good and Evil was not the sin
It was the DISOBEDIENCE to God who told them what not to do
Simply put, sin is “anything we think, say or do that disobeys God.”
But let's do a small word study on sin.
Biblically, the most basic meaning of sin is not religious
The Hebrew word for sin simply means “to fail” or “miss the goal”
The word is used in the Old Testament to say that people could sling a stone and not Khata, that is miss
Or that you can miss your way, or miss your destination as a result of making hasty decisions
So in the bible, sin is a failure to fulfil a goal or objective
Then what IS the goal?
We mentioned the answer last week and earlier today as well
The Good God created everything to be GOOD so that He will have JOY in it - enjoy it
And within creation, people are special because we are made in God's image.
Everyone represents the Creator
And everyone is created for a relationship with God and their fellows
So we can say that sin is a failure to love God and others.
We can see this represented in the 10 Commandments
1-5 Identify ways you can fail at loving God
6-10 names of ways you can fail at loving people
The fact that both kinds of failure are combined shows that failing to honour God is deeply connected to failing to honour people.
This is why, in the Bible, sin against people is sin against God.
Like when Joseph refuses to sleep with the wife of Potiphar, he says,
“How could I sin against God?”
In Joseph's mind, failing to honour a human made in God's image is a failure to love God.
So, sin is a failure to be as God created people to be
The word "sin" first appears in the Bible with Cain and Abel, who are sons of Adam and Eve
Their parents had just given into this beastly temptation to redefine good and evil by their wisdom.
Now Cain is faced with a similar choice.
He is jealous and angry that God has favoured his brother.
So God warns him, "If you don't choose what's good, Khata, sin, is crouching at the door.
It wants you, but you can rule over it."
Here sin, or moral failure, is depicted as a wild, hungry animal that wants to consume humans.
The Bible is trying to tell us that in failed human behaviour, our tendency toward self-deception runs deep.
It is rooted in our desires and selfish urges that compel us to act for our benefit at the expense of others.
It leads to this chain reaction of relational breakdown.
This is why in the New Testament, the apostle Paul describes sin as a power or a force that rules humans.
In his words, "We are slaves to sin.”
He even says, "Sin lives in us so that the things I don't want to do, that's what I do."
With the word "sin", the biblical authors are offering a robust description of the human condition.
It is a failure to be humans who fully love God and others.
we cannot judge whether we are succeeding or failing.
It is that deep, selfish impulse that drives much of our behaviour.
3. God Makes Us Good
The fascinating thing about sin in the Bible is that most of the time people are failing,
they either don't know it or even worse, they think they are succeeding.
Like when Pharaoh wants to build Egypt's economy and protect national security.
In his mind, this justifies enslaving the Israelites.
He thinks it is good.
He is unaware that it is an epic fail.
Or when King Saul is chasing David around the wilderness trying to kill him, he thinks he is bringing a criminal to justice.
Until he realizes he is the corrupt one and he says, "I have sinned, I am the failure.”
So, sin is about more than just doing bad things.
It describes how we easily deceive ourselves and spin illusions to redefine our bad decisions as good ones.
Which brings us back to where we started
God is Good and He created GOOD
But Adam and Eve, tried to usurp and expand the knowledge of Good for their enjoyment
They allowed themselves to be deceived and began deceiving others with GOODNESS - corrupting it
All of this was against God’s directions - hence sin
This is why people sin,
we want to have more than we are allowed,
to hide the parts we think are not good or people tell us are not good
Deceive people and ourselves into believing we are good
All the while, NOT living as representations of the GOOD God and Creator
Sin is anything we think, say or do that disobeys God
And everyone can sin and does sin
However, God in His goodness, love and grace knew exactly how to make us good and keep us good
He knew what it would take to, WHO it would take to for His creation to be completely free from sin
To live in perfect obedience to Him
It took the obedient and humble sacrifice of His son, Jesus Christ, to show us how to be truly human as God created us to be.
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