Church of the Nazarene - East Rockingham Campus

We are continuing in our 4-part teaching series called “Hurdles”.

Throughout this series we are going to face some of the key obstacles or hurdles that keep us from a full and abundant life in Christ.

Today we are talking about the hurdle of "little sins".

It can be easy for us to think that the smaller consequences of some sin, means they are not that big of a deal. But that’s not a biblical view of sin. In fact, the bible knows nothing of "little sins". The bible says that all sin is serious and it is always a hurdle in our relationship with Jesus.

Sin shows up in the human story in chapter 3 of Genesis.

In Genesis 1 and 2, God has created all things. All of creation and the cosmos, the land, the sea, and everything in them. He has created Adam and Eve, male and female, in his image. God has given them an identity, a calling and purpose for their lives. They are his co-agents, in creation, they enjoy perfect intimacy together.

This is God’s vision for humanity- for your life and mine. That hasn’t changed.

In this relationship, God gives them a choice. For a relationship to be loving, for it to be real intimacy, there has to be choice. Without a choice, Adam and Eve would have been God’s Robots, not sons and daughters.

So God has given them unlimited freedom with only one rule, one choice to obey him.

The devil comes into the story as a snake, and he goes after Eve at the point of this choice. He convinces her that God is holding out on them, that he cant be trusted.

Sin enters our story.

Sin wasn’t just the eating of a forbidden fruit, the breaking of a rule. It was the failure to be fully human as God intended. It was a fracture of trust and relationship with God, it was outside of his planned design for their lives. Friends that’s sin.

In the Old Testament Hebrew Language, the word for sin is Khata (Ha-tah). In the New Testament Greek the word is Hamartia. Both words carry the same idea of missing the mark, or a failure to make the goal, or coming up short.

The bible pictures sin as a failure to live into our calling as image bearers of God, a coming up short of our truest calling as his sons and daughters.

We choose sin, it continually separates us from relationship with God and distorts our lives. God in his mercy and grace continually comes after us, inviting us to turn away from our sin and into right relationship with him.

To be transformed, to be healed, and remade into the design he has for our lives and our flourishing.

And the healing and renewal is a critical part of God’s mercy because sin, according to the bible, is not just wrong actions, a list of rules broken. Sin has distorted our humanity- it’s a nature, a drive within us. Sin is part of our nature now as a result of Genesis 3.

The Good news for us today, is that Jesus came to deal with both. The guilt of our wrong actions, and the corruption and impurity of our heart.

Dealing with sin on our own seems hopelessly impossible, and to be honest, it pretty much is. But God does not expect us to deal with it alone, he invites us to surrender out life to him, including our sin, and allow him to come into our lives and make us new.

To literally restore and renew his image witin us, that we wouldn’t even desire sin anymore.

That’s the hope today friends- that’s the invitation.

If we will confess our sins- that is we agree with the Lord that what we are doing is wrong, that it is sin and falling short of who he has called us to be, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins, and purity us from all unrighteousness.

Are you ready to clear the hurdle of sin in your life? Walk in the light, as he is in the light.