A Shelter for the World

Week three of the summer Series "The Shelter"

It’s going to be hard to get back into this, but, I’ll somewhat explain where I was last week, and why there was no service.  I have been sick, not only physically, but emotionally, and what I really found out is that my own sin really makes life harder.  It creates hostility between us and God, and puts distance and space between us. (Romans 8:7)  My own impatience made me sick to my stomach, and in the long run, I stressed myself into submission. 

I’ve learned that sometimes it’s easier to trust God.  You know how sometimes, when you really want something to be easy, you end up doing things the hard way in the end?  Such as procrastinating on an assignment or being too lazy to get up and get the remote and suffering through some awful television show just because you don’t want to get up?  Isn’t it just easier to get up and do it?  But, it shows that our enemy is alive, and active.
Satan, the god of this age.

His greatest weapon is too distort our perspective.  He makes us hunger for the right here and right now.  “Forget patience, forget time, forget God, want we want is here and we want it NOW!”  The world we live in is filled with sin and this distorted truth.  Satan has got his hand on this generation, always getting faster and faster in it’s day to day activity, and I think I know in the end what trick Satan was out too pull.

First, he makes us selfish.  Now, doing things for ourselves, such as going out too eat at a nice restaurant once in a while, is not in itself sinful.  But Satan distorts our minds with this sin.  We see this as something we ourselves DESERVE every week.  And soon, if this is not kept in check, the sin spreads, and all of our free time becomes to devoted to ourselves, or, whatever will keep our minds off of God.

See, sin is like a sickness.  The book of James opens talking about this concept.   And that’s where we start today, and we’ll kind of work backwards in the passage.

but each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. ¹⁵ Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.  ~James 1:14-15

So, sin starts out by tempting our desires, our desires for ourselves.  It could be a thought, or an opportunity, whatever will get you too follow the idea.  And let me say this, I’m not without sin when I type this, on the contrary, I’m very qualified to talk about sin, I struggle with it in my everyday life as a Christian.

Second, let me say that, compromise is dangerous.  Read the passage.  “dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed.”  Those of us who get as close as we can too get a taste of sin, without sinning, are playing with fire.  Satan is a lion, and he wants to take you away from God, from light, and hold you inside the bondage of the darkness.  So, heed my warning when I say, don’t compromise when it comes to sin.  “The wages of sin is death” the Bible says, and God takes it very seriously. 

Once the desire is there, and we step into the trap, by opening our mouths without thinking, think for a moment of ourselves above God, our desire becomes sin, separating ourselves from God.  Then, sin begins to try to take hold, in the form of addictions and bondage.  Ever wonder about evil in the world?  Blame sin.

Due too the temptation and ultimate selfish transgression of Adam and Eve in the garden, our world is fallen, broken because of sin.  Wondered why God hasn’t got rid of it?  Wait, I’m getting their!

But, let’s get a couple things straight first.  What is sin?  Sin is transgression of God’s commands.  Anytime we choice to put something ahead of Him, or we lie, or steal, or lust, we break the heart by breaking the commands of a Holy God.  And what happens when we break Laws?  We get justice.  God is Holy, and Just, so, He must punish sin.  He does this by eternally separating us from Him after we die, in a place called Hell.  The greatest way to get a grasp around this is by looking ahead in the passage of James. 

¹⁶ Don’t be deceived, my dear brothers and sisters. ¹⁷ Every good and perfect gift is from above, coming down from the Father of the heavenly lights, who does not change like shifting shadows. ~James 1:16-17

If verses 16-17 are whats it like to be with God and too be in His presence, then how much more can we imagine separation from Him?  Separation from “every good and perfect thing,” and don’t say I’m trying to use “fear” to get you too think about God, I’m giving you a truth from God’s Word, I’m warning you off the crash that will happen by playing in the roadway of sin.

So, we can establish, God hates sin.  God does not tempt with sin.  (James 1:13)

But, on the flip side, God loves the sinner.

James 1:18 calls human beings the “first fruits of all creation,” He has a way out of the roadway of sin, He offers the Way.

He offers Jesus.

God sent Himself, in the form of a man, to live a sinless life, then He suffered and died on the Cross.  To clear of our debt toward our Holy Father.  He loves us enough to send us Jesus, all He asks for is for us to repent of our past sins and trust in Jesus.

This is the Gospel.
This the message the Church, the Body of Christ, is meant to stand on.  Even though the world is going through some of through a moral crisis and the most distant time this nation has ever had from God (with nearly 91% of CHRISTIANS proclaiming that absolute truth is found within ones self.)  The only way the Church is going to survive is not through ourselves, but through three things

1.  Looking past denomination
The Gospel is what we as the Church are meant to embrace, live, and spread.  The Gospel is God’s Fiery love for humanity, and we’re meant to spread it.

2. Spreading the fire.Jesus commands us to spread the Gospel, and too do it too all of creation!  So, what are we doing?  We’re letting Satan’s fire burn down this world, instead of taking the fire of Jesus, which does not destroy, but makes new.

But all of this will rely on step 3.

3. Starting a fire within ourselves. 
This is the scariest step.  By calling on the Spirit of God to come into our lives, too break our hearts for the lost, too open our eyes too what we can do, to put our feet in motion.  Why is this scary?  Because it will require going against the world and it’s view, and taking a stand for Christ, taking every persecution, every hateful judgemental comment, and knowing that our lives are meant too be lived for Christ.

It sounds hard doesn’t it?

But we have a body, or, a Body, who is meant to lift us up in the hard times.  To become an army of the Lord against Satan, to leave him shaking after our radical passion for God.  We the Church, are meant too not only build up and exalt God, but build up each other too seek after God with our hearts, our souls, with every passion we have inside, only through this can we become more then a building.  Only though faith, trust, and dependence on the God, who can do immeasurably more then we can ask or desire, do we become more then a Shelter for ourselves, but we become a Shelter for the world.

This is my prayer today.  Is it yours?

God Bless!