Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:00):
This episode of All In with Pastor Jordan Easley has
been made possible by the generous support of viewers like you.
Welcome to All In with Pastor Jordan Eastley. Today's message
is about to begin, and we invite you to prepare
your heart and mind to hear an inspiring message from
God's Word. We hope and pray for God to speak
to you today as you seek to live your life.
(00:21):
All in for Jesus Christ and Now from First Baptist
Church in Cleveland, Tennessee, here's Pastor Jordan Easley.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
You know, I've been a ministry since my kids were born,
and just about every Saturday, one of them will ask me, Dad,
what are you preaching tomorrow? And since they were a kid,
my response has been the same every single week. It
don't matter what the series is, what the text is.
Every week I'll say, I'm preaching on Jesus and Sin
every week. Now, what are you preaching on? I'm talking
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about Jesus and I'm talking about sin every single week.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Hey, today we're finishing up the God.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Defined It series. You want to guess on what I'm
preaching on? Jesus and Sin? Y'all? Okay? Ope in your Bible,
we're going to be in Romans chapter three. You know,
in verse twenty three it says for all of sin
and fall short of the glory of God. May I
ask you a question, who is this talking about? 's
talking about all of us? Right? I believe that the
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Bible makes it abundantly clear that all of us have sin,
all of us have fallen short of the glory of God.
I've never met a person who claims to be perfect
or claims to be without sin. But the longer we live,
the more this world tries to convince us that certain
things in our culture are no longer sin, even though
the Bible clearly defines these things as being sin. For instance,
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we hear all the time that we shouldn't make a
big deal about people having sex before marriage or doing
sexual things outside the relationship of marriage, because today that's
just a part of the dating process. People say, you know,
getting drunk isn't.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
That big of a deal because everybody drinks.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Or when our world talks about things like gossip or gluttony,
when we think about lusting or coveting or telling a
little white lie. From time to time, we like to
downplay what we believe to be little sins even in
our Christian culture, and we make it seem like these
little things aren't that big of a deal even to God. Hey,
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as we get kicked off today, let me just throw
this out there. You ready, Every sin is a big
sin to God. This is foundational, But we've got to
get this. Every sin is a big sin to God.
And that includes the things you call big sins, that
includes the things you consider to be small sins. Every
sin is a big deal to God, and we see
that to be true, going all the way back to
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the very beginning. Today, we're going to unpack the subject
of sin, and hopefully by the end of this message,
we'll all understand not necessarily the world's perspective, but we'll
all understand God's perspective when it comes to this important
topic in our life. In fact, if you're taking notes today,
I'm gonna go ahead and give you a very simple
(03:10):
outline that we're going to follow in. I hope you're
writing these things down, because if not, you're not going
to remember anything you hear. But our outline today, just
to give you the answers to the test, are simply this.
We're going to look at the root of sin, the
response of sin, the fruit of sin, and the truth
about sin. That's our pathway today. That's what we're gonna
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look at, and we're going to begin our topic today
on the root of sin. Let me ask you where
did sin begin? Most people believe sin originated in the
Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter three, when Adam and
Eve disobeyed God's command. But when you do a deep
dive in discovering the true root of sin, you're going
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to notice that sin actually originated in heaven. You see,
before sin entered humanity, it began with Satan, otherwise known
as Lucifer. Lucifer was a beautiful, powerful angel who became
prideful and shose to rebel against God. You can read
about that in Isaiah chapter fourteen or Ezekiel chapter twenty eight.
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But those passages show how Satan desired to exalt himself
above God and then responded in rebellion against God, and
as a result, Sin was born and Satan was kicked
out of heaven. Well, next you see Satan where in
the form of a serpent, he's hanging out in a
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place called the Garden of Eden, and he's tempting a
man and a woman named Adam and Eve telling him
you should turn your back on God. He tempted Eve
to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the
Knowledge of good and evil. By the way, that was
the one tree that God told him that you should
avoid at all cost. But what did she do? Well?
She ate of the tree, and so did Adam. And
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when they chose to disobey God, the sin that originated
with satan in heaven was born into the hearts of
humans here on the earth. Maybe you're wondering, what does
Adam and eve sin have to do with me? I mean,
why are we being punished for.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Something that they did so long ago? And that's a
great question.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
A lot of people wonder that Romans five kind of
gives us a pretty good answer. It says, just this
sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin.
In this way, death spread to all people because all sin.
So what does that verse tell you and I It
says that sin is all of our problem. Sin is
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our root problem. It is our foundational problem. I read
a story this week about a man who owned a beautiful, pristine,
white house. Everything was perfect, and this guy was extremely
proud of how perfect and spotless, as home really was
because it was flawless everywhere you'd look. It was perfection.
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But then one day he was walking around his home
and he noticed that there was a little crack in
one of the corners. And because his house was so perfect,
it really bothered him.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So he immediately went to his basement.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
He grabbed some paint and a brush, and he covered
up that crack so that his home would look perfect again.
And you know what it did. After he covered the crack,
it was perfect once again. It was spotless. It was flawless,
at least for a little while. A couple weeks later,
the crack reappeared, but this time the crack was even
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bigger and it was more noticeable, and the man was
upset because he wanted it to be perfect. So he
picked up the phone. He called a contractor and he said,
I need you to come tell me what my problem is.
The contractor showed up, evaluated everything, and the contractor looked
at him at the conclusion of their meeting and said, this, sir,
your problem is not the crack in the wall. Your
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problem is the foundation under your feet. Is that until
you fix the foundation, that crack will continue coming back. Hey,
I think most of us have the ability to look
at our own lives and to identify the cracks and
the flaws that shouldn't be there. We all have what
I want to call a cosmetic crack in our life right,
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and we inherently know the difference between right and wrong.
And when we cross that line, there's something inside of
us that says, man, I really shouldn't have said that.
I really shouldn't have done that. Like I knew the
second I did that that that was out of bounds.
I crossed the line. I did something or said something
that I shouldn't say. And when that happens, our tendency
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a lot of times is just to do our best
to cover up those cosmetic cracks. We do our best
to modify our behavior, or change our life, or do
some things different in order to be a better person.
But what I want us to see is until we
fix or address the foundational problem of our sin, we
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are never going to truly experience freedom from our sin.
Our foundational problem all of us, y'all, is sin, every
single one of us. Our foundational problem is sin. What
do we just read in Romans three? For all have
sin and fall short of the glory of God. Think
about this. What started as one single human decision from
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Adam and Eve became the world's single greatest problem. You
get that. You see, their sinful decision led to sin
becoming a part of human nature, and today every human
being that is born is born into sin. In fact,
the Psalmist said that in Psalm fifty one. In Psalm
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fifty one to five, this Almas said, indeed, I was
guilty when when I was born. I was sinful when
when my mother conceived me. That's going way back, y'all,
since your mom conceived you. The Bible says you've been sinful.
That was true in his life, and that's been true
in the life of every single human being in the
history of time. It's the root of sin that affects
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all of us. But now let's look at the response
of sin. See, when God created Adam and Eve, he
created human beings as being perfect. We were created to
be sin free. They like us, were created in the
image of God, and humans were formed with a heart
like God. But when the snake entered the garden, humanity
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experienced something powerful for the very first time. You know
what that was temptation? For the first time we see temptation.
That's what Genesis chapter three is all about. Verse one
says the serpent was the most cunning of all the
wild animals that the Lord God has made. In fact,
it talks about this snake talking to Eve and lying
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about God's instructions. He convinced her that there would be
no consequences if she just turned her back on God
and did what he wanted her to do. He whispered
in her ear, and he questioned God's authority, and he
worked hard to convince her that there is something out there,
something possible for you, that is even greater than God himself.
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And how did she respond? She took the bait. Her
response to that temptation began the ripple effect of sin
that we continue to experience even today. Are you tempted today?
All of us are? But you know what it says
in James one says, no one undergoing a trial should
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say I'm being tempted by God, since God is not
tempted by evil, and he himself doesn't tempt anyone. But
each person is tempted when he is drawn away and
enticed by his own evil desire. Then, after desire has conceived,
it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown,
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it gives birth to death. Temptation will always lead us
to a decision, always, and those decisions, according to scripture,
are going to lead you either to life or they're
going to lead you to death. But we don't think
about that when we're being tempted, do we? Most of
us aren't thinking all this is a life or death
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situation because most of the time it doesn't seem like
it is.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
When we're being tempted. What do we think everythinking?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Hey, what do I want to do? What seems right
in the moment? What sounds fun? That looks awesome? And
we're just kind of moving. But let me ask you this,
what frame of mind are you in most of the
time when you're making those decisions. We read this verse
a couple weeks ago in Colossians three that said set
your mind on things above, not on earthly things. Be
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Far too often our minds are focused on temporary things
instead of eternal things, and for those reasons, we oftentimes
let the power of temptation pull us across the line
for sinfulness. Hey, what determines the line for sinfulness? By
the way, I mean have you ever wondered that, Because,
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like we've already seen, the world has a different answer
to that question than your Bible does.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Who determines if something is a sin or not?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Answer? God does, y'all. Y'all should have known the answer
to that one.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
God determines if something is a sin or not.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Let me just say, at the end of this series,
you should know the world does not determine if something
is a sin or not.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
The world doesn't determine what's right and what's wrong.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
God does. Now, No, here's what we need to understand.
God didn't design sin. But God is the one who
defines sin. And how does he define it?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
How does God determine if something is a sin or not.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I'm gonna give you two things, but number one one
is the most important. God's measuring stick for sin is
his word, his word and Isaiah forty verse eight that
says the grass withers, the flower's fade, but the word
of our God remains. Say this with me forever. Hey,
our God says something about his word. He also says
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something about himself and that next verse, I want you
to see this. The Lord says that he himself, I
the Lord have not changed. You know what that means.
It means our God is unchangeable, big point. And the
word of God is unchangeable. God is unchangeable. His word
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is unchangeable, which ultimately means God's measuring stick for sin
does not change even when culture disagrees. Hey, in the Bible,
God gives us several what I want to call black
and white sins where he makes himself abundantly clear. It's
when you read the Bible and it says, and God
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says this is wrong or that is wrong, and if
you do these things, you're stepping into sin, but you're
also stepping in rebellion away from me. The Ten Commandments
would be a great example of a black and white sin.
He said, you shall not steal, You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not take my name in vain, or worship
false gods, or bear false witness against your neighbor. You
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shall not covet your neighbor's stuff. Right, we all know
the Ten Commandments. The Lord made himself abundantly clear when
he said those things. He said, these are black and
white directives from God to us, which means, if I
take something that doesn't belong to me today, if I
leave church and go murder someone today, if I fail
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to keep the Sabbath holy today, I don't have to
wonder is this sin or is this not sin? No,
I know it's sin. There's no conversation to have because
God's word makes it abundantly clear when those things are
sin or not. It's when you say, hey, Jesus, take
out my old heart, give me a new one. And
when our hearts are transformed by Christ. That's what changes everything,
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including your desire to sin. Listen, You're always gonna have
temptation in your life, but how you look at the
line of sin will tell you the truth about your heart.
You see, I believe there's three groups of people in
every single church when it comes to how do you
look at the line for sin.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
There's the person that avoids the line at all cost.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And those are people that say, Hey, I have no
desire to sin, and I'm running away from sin because
my heart's been changed by God and God's heart doesn't
need to pursue things that are unholy. But then you
also have another group of people, and those are ones
who say, I'm gonna get as close to the line
as possible. That's my kid when he was little, right,
I mean, whatever the line is, he's gonna just go
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right up next to that line. He's not gonna cross it,
and he's definitely not gonna be hanging out over here.
He's gonna get as close to the line as possible.
But a lot of us, even as adults, we do
that with with sinful things, and we get.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Close to that line, and we're trying to teeter between.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
The world and the Lord. We're trying to experience the
best of both worlds, and the Lord saying, hey, I
want you to pursue holiness and I want you to
flee sin. But we're hanging out on that line trying
to be in both worlds at the same time. You
got another group of people, and those are those who
we cross the line and we never look bad. And
I'll say, those are the folks in the room who
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are living in rebellion. And you've chosen to the devil's
way over God's way, and you haven't died to your
old nature. You're still living in that old nature. You
don't have a new heart, you still have that same
old heart pursuing the same old things. But the Bible
says when God changes our heart. He changes the way
we approach the line for sin. We see this play
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out when it comes to sexual sin all the time.
The Bible is very black and white with sexual sin.
First Corinthians six flee sexual immorality. First Thessalonians four keep
away from sexual immorality. Right, it's like back and white sin.
This is what you should do. But how do we
respond when it comes to sexual sin. Three groups. We
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flee from the line because of our conviction, We flirt
with the lime because we've got some confusion, or we
cross the line in all out rebellion. When God gives
us a new heart, that heart transformation should bring a
whole new perspective when we love the son of God,
when we're being convicted by the spirit of God, we
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ought to begin looking at our sin the same way
God looks at our sin. Let me tell you, when
you start looking at the sin in your life the
same way God looks at the sin in your life,
you'll start fleeing from that sin the same way He
tells you to flee from it. The root of our
sin the response to our sin. Real quickly, I want
to give you the fruit of our sin, the fruit
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of our sin. The Bible says, if you don't kill
the root of sin, you will eventually experience the fruit
of sin. What do we just read in James one?
But eat? Which person is tempted when he is drawn
away and enticed by his own evil desire? Then after
a desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And
when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
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What is the fruit of sin? Can I give you
four things? The Bible says? Number one spiritual death? Romans
six twenty three says for the wages of sin is death.
That word wages, It refers to something that we earn
or deserve. It's like minimum wage, right. So what do
you earn because of your sin? The Bible says, you
earn spiritual death. In other words, if you don't kill
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your sin, your sin will kill you, and this will end.
This story will end in spiritual death, which is also
something called separation from God. Isaiah fifty nine to two says,
but your iniquities are separating you from God, and your
sins have hidden his face from you so that he
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does not listen. Have you ever thought about that? Like unaddressed,
unconfessed sin, my life has the ability to build a
wall between me and God. Were now, even when I
cry out to God, he will not listen because that
wall of sin is blocking me. Have you ever realized
that unaddressed, unconfessed sin in your life blocks the ear
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of God, where you no longer have access the way
that God built you to have access. Not only do
we have separation from God, there's also bondage to sin.
This is a major fruit John eight thirty four. Jesus said, truly,
I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave
of sin. That means when we have sin in our
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life and it's unaddressed, unconfessed, we have not repented, we
have not turned to Jesus. It's like putting a ball
in chain around your leg. And when you have a
ball in chain and you are a slave to your sin,
it is impossible for you to run the race God
called you to run. You cannot be maximized in this
race called life if you are a slave to the
sin in your life. And he said you will experience
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bond because of your sin, which prevents freedom in your life.
Let me give you a fourth one. You're ready. One
of the fruits is this judgment and eternal consequences. In
Matthew chapter twenty five, it says, and they will go
away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
We have an option here. There is a fork in
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the road, and he says, how you address the sin
in your life will determine which path you take for
all eternity. That's the fruit of sin. Last, but not least,
I want to show you the truth about sin. Sin
is universal. I'm going to give you five things right here,
and this applies to every one of us. Sin is universal.
We just read that in Romans three. For all of
sin and fall short of the glory of God, every
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single one of us are guilty as charged. Romans three,
verse ten says there is no one righteous, not even one.
Sin is universal. But it's also personal. This isn't just
a lump us all together. We are all sinners, and
so that's just the boat that we're in. No, it's
a personal thing between us and the Lord. So I'm
fifty one four says against you, you alone, I have
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sinned and done this in your evil sight. You know
what that tells me? No one's responsible for my sin
except for me. I can't blame anybody else for my
greatest problem today, because it's a personal problem. But not
only is it a personal problem, the Bible says, it
is also a spiritual problem. It's a spiritual problem because
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sin is the one thing that separates me from God.
Here's the thing that we've got to know about spiritual problems.
Are you ready. We don't have the ability to fix
spiritual problems with practical solutions. Only a spiritual being has
the ability to create spiritual solutions, which means.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Without Jesus, there is nothing that we can do to
fix our world's greatest problem.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
It's a personal problem. It's also a spiritual problem. But
the fourth one, sin is punishable. It's universal, it's personal,
it's spiritual, but it's punished. I think about how the
Lord responded to the people in Leviticus twenty six. He said,
but if after these things you will not obey me,
I will proceed to discipline you seven times for your sins,
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and so on one forty five. The Lord guards all
those who love him, it says, but he destroys all
the wicked. In Ezekiel eighteen twenty, it says, the person
whose sin is the one. The person who sins is
the one who will die. That verse goes on to
say the wickedness of the wicked person will be on him.
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Sin is punishable. We want to hear the good news.
Sin is redeemable. It's redeemable. John three seventeen says, for
God did not send his son unto the world to
condemn the world. He came to save the world through Jesus.
And first Peter, we read another verse that says he
himself bore our sins and his body on the tree,
so that having died.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
To sin, we might live for righteousness.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
By his wounds, you have been healed. And first John
one nine it says if we confess our sins, he
is faithful and he is just to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Listen, the
word of God is very clear. We were all born
with a heart problem. But God's word reminds us that's
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why Jesus had to come. Jesus didn't come to refurbish
your heart. He came to replace your heart. He didn't
come to teach you how to be a better person
or a better version of yourself. He came to kill you.
He came to cut out your heart and to replace
it with something new. Hey, let me ask you a question.
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Have you experienced a spiritual heart transplant in your own life?
Can you go to the day in the time where
your old heart was cut out and Jesus replaced it
with a new heart. I didn't ask has there been
a time where Jesus convicted you of sin and you
know you went through a process of becoming a better person. No,
I'm saying, can you take me to the time in
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the place where the old you died and Jesus gave
you a brand new life? Because that, according to scripture,
is salvation. That is a picture of transformation. It's a
picture of what God requires of us as we are
becoming the person He created us to be. Today, if
you've never given your heart to Jesus, I would love
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to introduce you to the God who changed my life.
In fact, in just a moment, we're going to leave
through these doors. But if God is leading you to
a spiritual decision where you finally experience this heart transformation,
we'd love to talk to you today right after this service. Lord, today,
thank you for loving us, thank you for including us
in your church and giving us the opportunity to hear
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your word. God, I pray that we would not let
this land on deaf ears, we would respond to your word,
and that we would respond in a way that's pleasing
to your heart. Jesus Name, we pray Amen. As Christians,
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prayer is a powerful tool that can help us navigate
a world that can be very challenging. By studying the
prayers of biblical characters, we see how prayer is essential
for finding strength and difficult circumstances, and also staying connected
to God in a world that may lead us astray.
I'm Pastor Jordan Easily, and I want to challenge and
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equip you to enhance your prayer life by simply requesting
a free copy of the Powerful Prayer Guide, inspired by
my message series entitled Powerful Prayers. This guide is crafted
to deepen your relationship with God, empowering you to tackle
life's toughest challenges with grace, peace and joy. Getting your
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free guide is simple. Just follow the instructions on the
screen to order today, and we'll send your guide right
away to the address you provide. This guid is completely
free from our ministry and comes with no obligations. As
you walk through this guide. I humbly ask your prayers
for me and our ministry as we strive to spread
the Gospel globally. While our broadcast ministry is new, we
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believe in the power of television to reach hearts with
God's word, and your prayers mean the world to me
as I prepare to share a message from the Bible
every single week. While we appreciate any financial support for
our ministry, your prayers are truly invaluable. Thank you for
tuning in today. Please know that I am praying for
you and all of our all in friends, and I
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sincerely hope that this prayer God will elevate your prayer life. Hey,
we never want to end our broadcast without giving you
the opportunity to know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.
If you'd like to make the decision to trust Jesus
and want to know more about what it looks like
to follow Jesus, get in touch with me right now.
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Follow the instructions at the bottom of the screen so
that we can pray for you and also put information
in your hands right away. Today we celebrate your decision
and look forward to being a part of your personal
journey of going all In with Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
This episode of All In with Pastor Jordan eese Ley
has been made possible by the generous support of viewers
like you. We hope today's message encourages you as you
strive to live your life fully committed to Jesus Christ.
This episode of All In with Pastor Jordan Easley has
been made possible by the generous support of viewers like you.
Welcome to All In with Pastor Jordan Eastley. Today's message
is about to begin, and we invite you to prepare
your heart and mind to hear an inspiring message from
God's Word. We hope and pray for God to speak
to you today as you seek to live your life.
(00:21):
All in for Jesus Christ and Now from First Baptist
Church in Cleveland, Tennessee, here's Pastor Jordan Easley.
Speaker 2 (00:30):
You know, I've been a ministry since my kids were born,
and just about every Saturday, one of them will ask me, Dad,
what are you preaching tomorrow? And since they were a kid,
my response has been the same every single week. It
don't matter what the series is, what the text is.
Every week I'll say, I'm preaching on Jesus and Sin
every week. Now, what are you preaching on? I'm talking
(00:51):
about Jesus and I'm talking about sin every single week.
Speaker 3 (00:55):
Hey, today we're finishing up the God.
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Defined It series. You want to guess on what I'm
preaching on? Jesus and Sin? Y'all? Okay? Ope in your Bible,
we're going to be in Romans chapter three. You know,
in verse twenty three it says for all of sin
and fall short of the glory of God. May I
ask you a question, who is this talking about? 's
talking about all of us? Right? I believe that the
(01:19):
Bible makes it abundantly clear that all of us have sin,
all of us have fallen short of the glory of God.
I've never met a person who claims to be perfect
or claims to be without sin. But the longer we live,
the more this world tries to convince us that certain
things in our culture are no longer sin, even though
the Bible clearly defines these things as being sin. For instance,
(01:43):
we hear all the time that we shouldn't make a
big deal about people having sex before marriage or doing
sexual things outside the relationship of marriage, because today that's
just a part of the dating process. People say, you know,
getting drunk isn't.
Speaker 3 (02:01):
That big of a deal because everybody drinks.
Speaker 2 (02:03):
Or when our world talks about things like gossip or gluttony,
when we think about lusting or coveting or telling a
little white lie. From time to time, we like to
downplay what we believe to be little sins even in
our Christian culture, and we make it seem like these
little things aren't that big of a deal even to God. Hey,
(02:27):
as we get kicked off today, let me just throw
this out there. You ready, Every sin is a big
sin to God. This is foundational, But we've got to
get this. Every sin is a big sin to God.
And that includes the things you call big sins, that
includes the things you consider to be small sins. Every
sin is a big deal to God, and we see
that to be true, going all the way back to
(02:49):
the very beginning. Today, we're going to unpack the subject
of sin, and hopefully by the end of this message,
we'll all understand not necessarily the world's perspective, but we'll
all understand God's perspective when it comes to this important
topic in our life. In fact, if you're taking notes today,
I'm gonna go ahead and give you a very simple
(03:10):
outline that we're going to follow in. I hope you're
writing these things down, because if not, you're not going
to remember anything you hear. But our outline today, just
to give you the answers to the test, are simply this.
We're going to look at the root of sin, the
response of sin, the fruit of sin, and the truth
about sin. That's our pathway today. That's what we're gonna
(03:31):
look at, and we're going to begin our topic today
on the root of sin. Let me ask you where
did sin begin? Most people believe sin originated in the
Garden of Eden in Genesis chapter three, when Adam and
Eve disobeyed God's command. But when you do a deep
dive in discovering the true root of sin, you're going
(03:52):
to notice that sin actually originated in heaven. You see,
before sin entered humanity, it began with Satan, otherwise known
as Lucifer. Lucifer was a beautiful, powerful angel who became
prideful and shose to rebel against God. You can read
about that in Isaiah chapter fourteen or Ezekiel chapter twenty eight.
(04:16):
But those passages show how Satan desired to exalt himself
above God and then responded in rebellion against God, and
as a result, Sin was born and Satan was kicked
out of heaven. Well, next you see Satan where in
the form of a serpent, he's hanging out in a
(04:37):
place called the Garden of Eden, and he's tempting a
man and a woman named Adam and Eve telling him
you should turn your back on God. He tempted Eve
to eat the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the
Knowledge of good and evil. By the way, that was
the one tree that God told him that you should
avoid at all cost. But what did she do? Well?
She ate of the tree, and so did Adam. And
(05:00):
when they chose to disobey God, the sin that originated
with satan in heaven was born into the hearts of
humans here on the earth. Maybe you're wondering, what does
Adam and eve sin have to do with me? I mean,
why are we being punished for.
Speaker 3 (05:18):
Something that they did so long ago? And that's a
great question.
Speaker 2 (05:21):
A lot of people wonder that Romans five kind of
gives us a pretty good answer. It says, just this
sin entered the world through one man, and death through sin.
In this way, death spread to all people because all sin.
So what does that verse tell you and I It
says that sin is all of our problem. Sin is
(05:44):
our root problem. It is our foundational problem. I read
a story this week about a man who owned a beautiful, pristine,
white house. Everything was perfect, and this guy was extremely
proud of how perfect and spotless, as home really was
because it was flawless everywhere you'd look. It was perfection.
(06:06):
But then one day he was walking around his home
and he noticed that there was a little crack in
one of the corners. And because his house was so perfect,
it really bothered him.
Speaker 3 (06:15):
So he immediately went to his basement.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
He grabbed some paint and a brush, and he covered
up that crack so that his home would look perfect again.
And you know what it did. After he covered the crack,
it was perfect once again. It was spotless. It was flawless,
at least for a little while. A couple weeks later,
the crack reappeared, but this time the crack was even
(06:39):
bigger and it was more noticeable, and the man was
upset because he wanted it to be perfect. So he
picked up the phone. He called a contractor and he said,
I need you to come tell me what my problem is.
The contractor showed up, evaluated everything, and the contractor looked
at him at the conclusion of their meeting and said, this, sir,
your problem is not the crack in the wall. Your
(07:02):
problem is the foundation under your feet. Is that until
you fix the foundation, that crack will continue coming back. Hey,
I think most of us have the ability to look
at our own lives and to identify the cracks and
the flaws that shouldn't be there. We all have what
I want to call a cosmetic crack in our life right,
(07:26):
and we inherently know the difference between right and wrong.
And when we cross that line, there's something inside of
us that says, man, I really shouldn't have said that.
I really shouldn't have done that. Like I knew the
second I did that that that was out of bounds.
I crossed the line. I did something or said something
that I shouldn't say. And when that happens, our tendency
(07:48):
a lot of times is just to do our best
to cover up those cosmetic cracks. We do our best
to modify our behavior, or change our life, or do
some things different in order to be a better person.
But what I want us to see is until we
fix or address the foundational problem of our sin, we
(08:11):
are never going to truly experience freedom from our sin.
Our foundational problem all of us, y'all, is sin, every
single one of us. Our foundational problem is sin. What
do we just read in Romans three? For all have
sin and fall short of the glory of God. Think
about this. What started as one single human decision from
(08:35):
Adam and Eve became the world's single greatest problem. You
get that. You see, their sinful decision led to sin
becoming a part of human nature, and today every human
being that is born is born into sin. In fact,
the Psalmist said that in Psalm fifty one. In Psalm
(08:58):
fifty one to five, this Almas said, indeed, I was
guilty when when I was born. I was sinful when
when my mother conceived me. That's going way back, y'all,
since your mom conceived you. The Bible says you've been sinful.
That was true in his life, and that's been true
in the life of every single human being in the
history of time. It's the root of sin that affects
(09:21):
all of us. But now let's look at the response
of sin. See, when God created Adam and Eve, he
created human beings as being perfect. We were created to
be sin free. They like us, were created in the
image of God, and humans were formed with a heart
like God. But when the snake entered the garden, humanity
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experienced something powerful for the very first time. You know
what that was temptation? For the first time we see temptation.
That's what Genesis chapter three is all about. Verse one
says the serpent was the most cunning of all the
wild animals that the Lord God has made. In fact,
it talks about this snake talking to Eve and lying
(10:04):
about God's instructions. He convinced her that there would be
no consequences if she just turned her back on God
and did what he wanted her to do. He whispered
in her ear, and he questioned God's authority, and he
worked hard to convince her that there is something out there,
something possible for you, that is even greater than God himself.
(10:26):
And how did she respond? She took the bait. Her
response to that temptation began the ripple effect of sin
that we continue to experience even today. Are you tempted today?
All of us are? But you know what it says
in James one says, no one undergoing a trial should
(10:48):
say I'm being tempted by God, since God is not
tempted by evil, and he himself doesn't tempt anyone. But
each person is tempted when he is drawn away and
enticed by his own evil desire. Then, after desire has conceived,
it gives birth to sin, and when sin is fully grown,
(11:10):
it gives birth to death. Temptation will always lead us
to a decision, always, and those decisions, according to scripture,
are going to lead you either to life or they're
going to lead you to death. But we don't think
about that when we're being tempted, do we? Most of
us aren't thinking all this is a life or death
(11:30):
situation because most of the time it doesn't seem like
it is.
Speaker 3 (11:34):
When we're being tempted. What do we think everythinking?
Speaker 2 (11:36):
Hey, what do I want to do? What seems right
in the moment? What sounds fun? That looks awesome? And
we're just kind of moving. But let me ask you this,
what frame of mind are you in most of the
time when you're making those decisions. We read this verse
a couple weeks ago in Colossians three that said set
your mind on things above, not on earthly things. Be
(12:00):
Far too often our minds are focused on temporary things
instead of eternal things, and for those reasons, we oftentimes
let the power of temptation pull us across the line
for sinfulness. Hey, what determines the line for sinfulness? By
the way, I mean have you ever wondered that, Because,
(12:21):
like we've already seen, the world has a different answer
to that question than your Bible does.
Speaker 3 (12:26):
Who determines if something is a sin or not?
Speaker 2 (12:29):
Answer? God does, y'all. Y'all should have known the answer
to that one.
Speaker 3 (12:34):
God determines if something is a sin or not.
Speaker 2 (12:36):
Let me just say, at the end of this series,
you should know the world does not determine if something
is a sin or not.
Speaker 3 (12:42):
The world doesn't determine what's right and what's wrong.
Speaker 2 (12:44):
God does. Now, No, here's what we need to understand.
God didn't design sin. But God is the one who
defines sin. And how does he define it?
Speaker 3 (12:54):
How does God determine if something is a sin or not.
Speaker 2 (12:58):
I'm gonna give you two things, but number one one
is the most important. God's measuring stick for sin is
his word, his word and Isaiah forty verse eight that
says the grass withers, the flower's fade, but the word
of our God remains. Say this with me forever. Hey,
our God says something about his word. He also says
(13:18):
something about himself and that next verse, I want you
to see this. The Lord says that he himself, I
the Lord have not changed. You know what that means.
It means our God is unchangeable, big point. And the
word of God is unchangeable. God is unchangeable. His word
(13:39):
is unchangeable, which ultimately means God's measuring stick for sin
does not change even when culture disagrees. Hey, in the Bible,
God gives us several what I want to call black
and white sins where he makes himself abundantly clear. It's
when you read the Bible and it says, and God
(13:59):
says this is wrong or that is wrong, and if
you do these things, you're stepping into sin, but you're
also stepping in rebellion away from me. The Ten Commandments
would be a great example of a black and white sin.
He said, you shall not steal, You shall not commit adultery.
You shall not take my name in vain, or worship
false gods, or bear false witness against your neighbor. You
(14:23):
shall not covet your neighbor's stuff. Right, we all know
the Ten Commandments. The Lord made himself abundantly clear when
he said those things. He said, these are black and
white directives from God to us, which means, if I
take something that doesn't belong to me today, if I
leave church and go murder someone today, if I fail
(14:45):
to keep the Sabbath holy today, I don't have to
wonder is this sin or is this not sin? No,
I know it's sin. There's no conversation to have because
God's word makes it abundantly clear when those things are
sin or not. It's when you say, hey, Jesus, take
out my old heart, give me a new one. And
when our hearts are transformed by Christ. That's what changes everything,
(15:08):
including your desire to sin. Listen, You're always gonna have
temptation in your life, but how you look at the
line of sin will tell you the truth about your heart.
You see, I believe there's three groups of people in
every single church when it comes to how do you
look at the line for sin.
Speaker 3 (15:26):
There's the person that avoids the line at all cost.
Speaker 2 (15:30):
And those are people that say, Hey, I have no
desire to sin, and I'm running away from sin because
my heart's been changed by God and God's heart doesn't
need to pursue things that are unholy. But then you
also have another group of people, and those are ones
who say, I'm gonna get as close to the line
as possible. That's my kid when he was little, right,
I mean, whatever the line is, he's gonna just go
(15:51):
right up next to that line. He's not gonna cross it,
and he's definitely not gonna be hanging out over here.
He's gonna get as close to the line as possible.
But a lot of us, even as adults, we do
that with with sinful things, and we get.
Speaker 3 (16:02):
Close to that line, and we're trying to teeter between.
Speaker 2 (16:04):
The world and the Lord. We're trying to experience the
best of both worlds, and the Lord saying, hey, I
want you to pursue holiness and I want you to
flee sin. But we're hanging out on that line trying
to be in both worlds at the same time. You
got another group of people, and those are those who
we cross the line and we never look bad. And
I'll say, those are the folks in the room who
(16:25):
are living in rebellion. And you've chosen to the devil's
way over God's way, and you haven't died to your
old nature. You're still living in that old nature. You
don't have a new heart, you still have that same
old heart pursuing the same old things. But the Bible
says when God changes our heart. He changes the way
we approach the line for sin. We see this play
(16:46):
out when it comes to sexual sin all the time.
The Bible is very black and white with sexual sin.
First Corinthians six flee sexual immorality. First Thessalonians four keep
away from sexual immorality. Right, it's like back and white sin.
This is what you should do. But how do we
respond when it comes to sexual sin. Three groups. We
(17:07):
flee from the line because of our conviction, We flirt
with the lime because we've got some confusion, or we
cross the line in all out rebellion. When God gives
us a new heart, that heart transformation should bring a
whole new perspective when we love the son of God,
when we're being convicted by the spirit of God, we
(17:28):
ought to begin looking at our sin the same way
God looks at our sin. Let me tell you, when
you start looking at the sin in your life the
same way God looks at the sin in your life,
you'll start fleeing from that sin the same way He
tells you to flee from it. The root of our
sin the response to our sin. Real quickly, I want
to give you the fruit of our sin, the fruit
(17:50):
of our sin. The Bible says, if you don't kill
the root of sin, you will eventually experience the fruit
of sin. What do we just read in James one?
But eat? Which person is tempted when he is drawn
away and enticed by his own evil desire? Then after
a desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And
when sin is fully grown, it gives birth to death.
(18:11):
What is the fruit of sin? Can I give you
four things? The Bible says? Number one spiritual death? Romans
six twenty three says for the wages of sin is death.
That word wages, It refers to something that we earn
or deserve. It's like minimum wage, right. So what do
you earn because of your sin? The Bible says, you
earn spiritual death. In other words, if you don't kill
(18:34):
your sin, your sin will kill you, and this will end.
This story will end in spiritual death, which is also
something called separation from God. Isaiah fifty nine to two says,
but your iniquities are separating you from God, and your
sins have hidden his face from you so that he
(18:54):
does not listen. Have you ever thought about that? Like unaddressed,
unconfessed sin, my life has the ability to build a
wall between me and God. Were now, even when I
cry out to God, he will not listen because that
wall of sin is blocking me. Have you ever realized
that unaddressed, unconfessed sin in your life blocks the ear
(19:16):
of God, where you no longer have access the way
that God built you to have access. Not only do
we have separation from God, there's also bondage to sin.
This is a major fruit John eight thirty four. Jesus said, truly,
I tell you, everyone who commits sin is a slave
of sin. That means when we have sin in our
(19:36):
life and it's unaddressed, unconfessed, we have not repented, we
have not turned to Jesus. It's like putting a ball
in chain around your leg. And when you have a
ball in chain and you are a slave to your sin,
it is impossible for you to run the race God
called you to run. You cannot be maximized in this
race called life if you are a slave to the
sin in your life. And he said you will experience
(19:59):
bond because of your sin, which prevents freedom in your life.
Let me give you a fourth one. You're ready. One
of the fruits is this judgment and eternal consequences. In
Matthew chapter twenty five, it says, and they will go
away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.
We have an option here. There is a fork in
(20:20):
the road, and he says, how you address the sin
in your life will determine which path you take for
all eternity. That's the fruit of sin. Last, but not least,
I want to show you the truth about sin. Sin
is universal. I'm going to give you five things right here,
and this applies to every one of us. Sin is universal.
We just read that in Romans three. For all of
sin and fall short of the glory of God, every
(20:42):
single one of us are guilty as charged. Romans three,
verse ten says there is no one righteous, not even one.
Sin is universal. But it's also personal. This isn't just
a lump us all together. We are all sinners, and
so that's just the boat that we're in. No, it's
a personal thing between us and the Lord. So I'm
fifty one four says against you, you alone, I have
(21:05):
sinned and done this in your evil sight. You know
what that tells me? No one's responsible for my sin
except for me. I can't blame anybody else for my
greatest problem today, because it's a personal problem. But not
only is it a personal problem, the Bible says, it
is also a spiritual problem. It's a spiritual problem because
(21:26):
sin is the one thing that separates me from God.
Here's the thing that we've got to know about spiritual problems.
Are you ready. We don't have the ability to fix
spiritual problems with practical solutions. Only a spiritual being has
the ability to create spiritual solutions, which means.
Speaker 3 (21:44):
Without Jesus, there is nothing that we can do to
fix our world's greatest problem.
Speaker 2 (21:50):
It's a personal problem. It's also a spiritual problem. But
the fourth one, sin is punishable. It's universal, it's personal,
it's spiritual, but it's punished. I think about how the
Lord responded to the people in Leviticus twenty six. He said,
but if after these things you will not obey me,
I will proceed to discipline you seven times for your sins,
(22:13):
and so on one forty five. The Lord guards all
those who love him, it says, but he destroys all
the wicked. In Ezekiel eighteen twenty, it says, the person
whose sin is the one. The person who sins is
the one who will die. That verse goes on to
say the wickedness of the wicked person will be on him.
(22:34):
Sin is punishable. We want to hear the good news.
Sin is redeemable. It's redeemable. John three seventeen says, for
God did not send his son unto the world to
condemn the world. He came to save the world through Jesus.
And first Peter, we read another verse that says he
himself bore our sins and his body on the tree,
so that having died.
Speaker 3 (22:55):
To sin, we might live for righteousness.
Speaker 2 (22:57):
By his wounds, you have been healed. And first John
one nine it says if we confess our sins, he
is faithful and he is just to forgive us our
sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. Listen, the
word of God is very clear. We were all born
with a heart problem. But God's word reminds us that's
(23:20):
why Jesus had to come. Jesus didn't come to refurbish
your heart. He came to replace your heart. He didn't
come to teach you how to be a better person
or a better version of yourself. He came to kill you.
He came to cut out your heart and to replace
it with something new. Hey, let me ask you a question.
(23:44):
Have you experienced a spiritual heart transplant in your own life?
Can you go to the day in the time where
your old heart was cut out and Jesus replaced it
with a new heart. I didn't ask has there been
a time where Jesus convicted you of sin and you
know you went through a process of becoming a better person. No,
I'm saying, can you take me to the time in
(24:05):
the place where the old you died and Jesus gave
you a brand new life? Because that, according to scripture,
is salvation. That is a picture of transformation. It's a
picture of what God requires of us as we are
becoming the person He created us to be. Today, if
you've never given your heart to Jesus, I would love
(24:28):
to introduce you to the God who changed my life.
In fact, in just a moment, we're going to leave
through these doors. But if God is leading you to
a spiritual decision where you finally experience this heart transformation,
we'd love to talk to you today right after this service. Lord, today,
thank you for loving us, thank you for including us
in your church and giving us the opportunity to hear
(24:49):
your word. God, I pray that we would not let
this land on deaf ears, we would respond to your word,
and that we would respond in a way that's pleasing
to your heart. Jesus Name, we pray Amen. As Christians,
(25:09):
prayer is a powerful tool that can help us navigate
a world that can be very challenging. By studying the
prayers of biblical characters, we see how prayer is essential
for finding strength and difficult circumstances, and also staying connected
to God in a world that may lead us astray.
I'm Pastor Jordan Easily, and I want to challenge and
(25:30):
equip you to enhance your prayer life by simply requesting
a free copy of the Powerful Prayer Guide, inspired by
my message series entitled Powerful Prayers. This guide is crafted
to deepen your relationship with God, empowering you to tackle
life's toughest challenges with grace, peace and joy. Getting your
(25:50):
free guide is simple. Just follow the instructions on the
screen to order today, and we'll send your guide right
away to the address you provide. This guid is completely
free from our ministry and comes with no obligations. As
you walk through this guide. I humbly ask your prayers
for me and our ministry as we strive to spread
the Gospel globally. While our broadcast ministry is new, we
(26:13):
believe in the power of television to reach hearts with
God's word, and your prayers mean the world to me
as I prepare to share a message from the Bible
every single week. While we appreciate any financial support for
our ministry, your prayers are truly invaluable. Thank you for
tuning in today. Please know that I am praying for
you and all of our all in friends, and I
(26:35):
sincerely hope that this prayer God will elevate your prayer life. Hey,
we never want to end our broadcast without giving you
the opportunity to know Jesus as your personal Lord and Savior.
If you'd like to make the decision to trust Jesus
and want to know more about what it looks like
to follow Jesus, get in touch with me right now.
(26:58):
Follow the instructions at the bottom of the screen so
that we can pray for you and also put information
in your hands right away. Today we celebrate your decision
and look forward to being a part of your personal
journey of going all In with Jesus Christ.
Speaker 1 (27:14):
This episode of All In with Pastor Jordan eese Ley
has been made possible by the generous support of viewers
like you. We hope today's message encourages you as you
strive to live your life fully committed to Jesus Christ.
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