up and at'em
we do have a problem....
there is a Solution....
and it's coming!
"Beware of no man more than yourself;
we carry our worst enemies within us. "
Charles Spurgeon
Matthew 15:16-20 the Message
Jesus replied,
“You, too? Are you being willfully stupid? Don’t you know that anything that is swallowed works its way through the intestines and is finally defecated?
But what comes out of the mouth
gets its start in the heart.
It’s from the heart that we vomit up evil arguments,
murders, adulteries, fornications, thefts, lies, and cussing.
That’s what pollutes. Eating or not eating certain foods,
washing or not washing your hands—
that’s neither here nor there.”
sin
is a serious problem
sin
kills
James 1:13-15 the Message
Don’t let anyone under pressure to give in to evil say,
“God is trying to trip me up.” God is impervious to evil,
and puts evil in no one’s way.
Matthew 13:24-30 the Message
The temptation to give in to evil comes from us and only us.
We have no one to blame but the leering,
seducing flare-up of our own lust.
He told another story.
“God’s kingdom is like a farmer who planted good seed in his field.
That night, while his hired men were asleep, his enemy sowed
thistles all through the wheat and slipped away before dawn.
When the first green shoots appeared and the grain began to form,
the thistles showed up, too.
Lust gets pregnant, and has a baby: sin!
Sin grows up to adulthood, and becomes a real killer.
Matthew 7:21-23 the Message
James 4:13-17 the Message
“Knowing the correct password—saying ‘Master, Master,’
for instance—isn’t going to get you anywhere with me.
“The farmhands came to the farmer and said,
‘Master, that was clean seed you planted, wasn’t it?
Where did these thistles come from?’
And now I have a word
for you who brashly announce,
“Today—at the latest, tomorrow—we’re off to such and such a city
for the year. We’re going to start a business and make a lot of money.”
You don’t know the first thing about tomorrow. You’re nothing but a wisp of fog, catching a brief bit of sun before disappearing.
What is required is serious obedience—
doing what my Father wills.
Instead, make it a habit to say,
“If the Master wills it and we’re still alive,
we’ll do this or that.”
“He answered, ‘Some enemy did this.’
“The farmhands asked, ‘Should we weed out the thistles?’
As it is, you are full of your grandiose selves.
All such vaunting self-importance is evil.
I can see it now—
at the Final Judgment thousands strutting up to me and saying, ‘Master, we preached the Message, we bashed the demons,
our God-sponsored projects had everyone talking.’
And do you know what I am going to say?
‘You missed the boat. All you did was use me to make yourselves important. You don’t impress me one bit.
You’re out of here.’
In fact,
if you know the right thing to do and don’t do it,
that, for you, is evil.
“He said, ‘No, if you weed the thistles, you’ll pull up the wheat, too.
Let them grow together until harvest time.
Then I’ll instruct the harvesters to pull up the thistles and
tie them in bundles for the fire,
then gather the wheat and put it in the barn.’”
sin
no where to hide
sin
we all deal with it
it's coming
living the Kingdom life
moving towards Easter
discussing the need for Easter
sin (hamartia)