Informatics Bonfire

Informatics End of the Year Bonfire
April 27, 2012 6:30pm

When we are born there is a barrier between God and us.  We cannot have a relationship with Him because God is perfect and has perfect righteousness.  We are not!!  We are born into the slave market of sin. John 08:34, “Jesus answered them, “Truly, truly, I say to you, everyone who commits sin is the slave of sin.”

There is nothing we can do as humans to escape this slave market, we are hopeless and helpless.  The good news is that God has provided a solution - a way out of the darkness.  II Corinthians 05:21, “He made Him who knew no sin to be sin on our behalf, that we might become the righteousness of God in Him.”  JC came to this earth in perfect humanity and redeemed us from this slave market.  He did all of the work – dying as our substitute on the cross.  We do not have to do anything!!  God’s grace is amazing!  All you have to do is accept JC as your Savior and you will be saved. 

After Christ died on the cross he was resurrected.  This resurrection gives us hope.  Once you accept JC as Savior you will have eternal life!  John 10:28, “and I give eternal life to them, and they shall never perish; and no one shall snatch them out of My hand.”

I believed in JC as a child but those of you that know me probably have figured out that I am not perfect.  I sin and screw up often.  How can this be if I am a Christian – if I believed in JC as my Savior?  It’s because I’m still a sinner!  Romans 03:23, “for all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” Every time I sin I lose fellowship with God – not salvation just fellowship.  Believing in JC did not make me a spiritual giant who can handle any thing in life.

I often stop myself and think, “What am I doing?”  I don’t want to be this person and yet I often can’t stop it!  Romans 07:15, “For that which I am doing, I do not understand; for I am not practicing what I would like to do, but I am doing the very thing I hate.”  Did God provide salvation and then just leave me hanging afterwards?  No!  He knows that we cannot function spiritually without His grace and provisions.  All we have to do is name our sins to God and He is faithful and just to forgive us those sins and cleanse us from all unrighteousness!  I John 01:09.  How incredible is that?!  My pastor uses the term “rebound” for confessing your sins.  This is his analogy:

Excerpt from Pastor R.B. Thieme's Rebound publication:

Winning a basketball game requires players to shoot and to rebound the ball.  When the ball leaves the hand of a shooter, arches gracefully toward the basket, drops inside the rim of the hoop, and rips through the net, he scores.  But when his shot misses, the ball must be rebounded.  Rebounding recovers the loose ball as it caroms off the rim or backboard.  Rebounding restores the opportunity to shoot, to score, and ultimately, to win.

In the spiritual life every Christian misses shots or sins.  But like basketball, the contest of the Christian life does not end when a believer sins.  God graciously provides the way to rebound from sin, to restore the filling of the Holy Spirit, to recover fellowship with God, and to keep moving in the spiritual life.  Rebound offers the believer an infinite number of chances to be a winner in the Christian life. 

Every time I sin, I can privately name that sin to God and I am forgiven.  I can forget my screw up and focus on God and the amazing promises He has given to me.  I can move on.

Philippians 03:13, “Brethren, I do not regard myself as having laid hold of it yet; but one thing I do: forgetting what lies behind and reaching forward to what lies ahead,” Philippians 03:14, “I press on toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”

Many of you are beginning the rest of your life next week and I hope you’ll keep that verse in mind:  II Corinthians 04:18, “while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen; for the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal.”  Remember that as you embark on this new journey in your life that you have a unique opportunity to grow spiritually and set an example to those around you.  I will pray that when you miss a shot (and you will) you will have daily reminders to rebound that ball so that your shots/baskets count in the spiritual life.  I hope I have set this example for you and that you have recognized the grace I have extended toward you as a reflection of the incredible grace God has extended toward me.