IDEA: Choices have consequences
Words to spark:
wall, separation, death, end, final, demise, passing, expire, loss, fear, terror, dark, black, scary, payment, fee, cost, heavy, weighty, ugly, painful, desperation, humiliating, selfish, unkind, evil, disgusting, wretched, hateful, rampant, disease, pandemic, deadly, infectious, sly, sneaky, quiet, sickly, festering, hole, pit, falling, helpless, hopeless, overwhelming, rebellious, pride, hard, dry, lifeless, dead, stink, rot, putrid,
Scripture:
Isaiah 59:1-2 (NLT)
1 Listen! The LORD’s arm is not too weak to save you, nor is his ear too deaf to hear you call. 2 It’s your sins that have cut you off from God. Because of your sins, he has turned away and will not listen anymore.
Isaiah 64:7 (NLT)
7 Yet no one calls on your [God’s] name or pleads with you for mercy. Therefore, you have turned away from us and turned us over to our sins.
Matthew 7:23 (NLT)
23 But I will reply, ‘I never knew you. Get away from me, you who break God’s laws.’
Matthew 25:41 (NLT)
41 “Then the King will turn to those on the left and say, ‘Away with you, you cursed ones, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his demons.
Romans 8:7 (NLT)
7 For the sinful nature is always hostile to God. It never did obey God’s laws, and it never will.
Hebrews 12:14 (NLT)
14 Work at living in peace with everyone, and work at living a holy life, for those who are not holy will not see the Lord.
Thought: The opposite of love isn’t hate, it’s sin.
Meditation:
Sin is the worst thing to happen to mankind.
Ever.
God made everything and gave mankind dominion over the earth. We were to be partners with God in caring for His beautiful creation.
You probably expect now’s the time to beat up on Adam and Eve for sinning.
Maybe… if only every single one of us didn’t choose sin.
But we do. So let’s leave Adam and Eve alone for a moment and deal with the bigger picture.
We all sin and fall short of the glory of God.
God hates sin.
Sin separates us from God.
There is nothing we can do to argue, fight or beg our way back to God once we have sinned. There is no power within us to be able to even make our way to the throne room of God to plead our case.
I don’t need to know you to know that you have sinned. The bible says so and that is a reliable source.
How bad can it be though? As long as no one gets hurt, it’s not really a big deal, right?
Enter Eve.
Let’s not attack her though. Let’s look at her calmly and rationally. All she did was bite a piece of fruit. That’s not so bad, right? In fact, couldn’t you say it was admirable and proactive of her to want to be more like God? To have knowledge forbidden to her?
Have you ever done anything worse than biting a piece of fruit?
What about Adam?
All he did was support his wife’s choice and demonstrate what a good husband should do, right?
How bad was their sin really?
God’s Word says that “Everyone who sins is breaking God’s law, for all sin is contrary to the law of God.” (1 John 3:4)
The stars and planets obeyed the Word of God. He gave them fixed courses and speeds to travel and they obeyed.
Plants grew and multiplied, animals grew and multiplied, everything did what it was supposed to do. God’s Word is enough. It will accomplish what it sets out to accomplish.
God’s Word speaks and all of creation says “yes, Lord” and swiftly obeys.
Except us.
The very Agent God chose to manifest His creative genius - His Word, Jesus Christ - was defied by the only creatures made in His image.
That is a very serious offense. One that was so vile it required a punishment that had not yet existed in the Garden of Eden.
Death did not exist until sin was found in God’s children.
God’s powerful Word spoke clearly and directly and the penalty was laid out ahead of time. If you sin, you will surely die.
Adam and Eve weren’t so bad… compared to the rest of us. All they did was what is common to us all.
They placed their own desires above God’s.
They placed their own “wisdom” above God’s.
They decided they knew better than the One who gave them the brains with which to think.
Yes, their sin was terrible.
How much worse is ours?
How can we escape this penalty? Who can we go to that is a higher authority than God? Who can stand between us and His terrible anger?
Sin is a weighty and ugly obstacle. An insurmountable enemy that continuously stands between us and God and on our own we are absolutely helpless to find our way back to His presence. Sin is an impenetrable barrier that no strength of ours can move, and no effort of ours can even slow down its inevitable product: Death.
Eternal death.
Eternal separation from God in hell.
Sin is the worst thing to happen to mankind.
Ever.
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