Young Life Club talk: Sin

Here is the club talk I gave yesterday at club. I think/pray it went well.

So as some or most of you know I love to tell stories, so I want to tell you guys a few stories tonight. I’ll do my best to make them interesting. First off I have a question: Have you ever tried to do something on your own and completely failed?

    Well I have. I failed hard! A perfect example of this was in my senior year of high school I was an ASB officer, and we had a theme to bring back old traditions that our parents had when they went to school there. One of these traditions was to have a big bon fire before the rival football game. This hadn’t been done in years so I took it upon my self to make this

happen. I found where and who to contact to get the dozens of permits, I got approval from the school and district, as well as the fire department too. It came down to the wire but it all got approved and was a go. But on the day of the big game I found out that we were not allowed to burn any form of processed wood; thus no pallets. So I skipped out on most all of my classes that day with my best friend and we drove around to every ones house we knew to grab fallen natural wood. This took a greater part of the day, a day that saturated the entire earth and everything in a constant soaking drizzle. By the time of the game we had collected enough wood with a few bribes and purchases.

Bon fire attempt

But due to me doing all this work on my own it was so last minute that the word about the bon fire didn’t really get out, it was so small because of the wood we had to use, and it was located in the middle of a the practice field which was now mostly mud due to the rain, that nobody came to it. It was quite pathetic. A few cheerleaders showed up but mostly out of obligation. It was a complete failure. I could not do it on my own. 

            I tell you that story to tell you another story that didn’t go quite right.

            I want to tell you guys one of the most well known stories in the bible. It’s the story of Adam and Eve. First off I don’t really want to go into evolution or creationism. We all have opinions; ask one of the leaders afterward. I will say no matter what, I do believe God had a hand in either or both cases. So let’s start at square one. Genesis 1. In the beginning God started creating. God created the earth in an instant. Think that might have created a bit of a boom? Then God spoke light into existence and said it was good. He created day and night, sea and land, and saw that they too were good. Next he made the sun and the moon and stars to govern over day and night, and the hours and years, and they were good. Then God made fish, birds, animals, livestock, and the platypus; and they too were good. Then God wasn’t done, taking some of the earth he had created, he started molding shaping and forming it into a likeness of himself. Leaning in, taking a big breath, God breathed life into Adam. But the creation wasn’t complete there, taking some more earth and a spare rib from Adam; God formed shaped Eve into the likeness of himself breathing life into her the same way He did Adam. Taking a step back I picture God arms crossed leaning back against a tree so pleased with all that He just did. Now when he looks at Adam and Eve, both made perfect, he says they are “VERY good.” It was perfect. God had created Adam and Eve and placed them in the Garden of Eden in perfect relationship with himself. It says that God walked amongst his creation with Adam and Eve in the garden. Everything was provided for them. They didn’t have to do anything to be in God’s presence. It was perfect. The way it was supposed to be. But then as we all know a serpent comes (of course it’s a serpent, I hate snakes!). Tempts Eve and Adam and they and they eat the fruit of the forbidden tree God had placed for them not to touch.

            This is the part in which what I want to talk about tonight comes into the scene. It’s a commonly misunderstood topic, but I hope to clear it up for you; sin. Most of the time we think of sin as the actions we do that are “morally wrong.” I googled “most common sins” and this is a common list I found: materialism, cheating, idolatry, greed, self-centeredness, bigotry, racism, pride, looking the other way as people starve to death, and neglecting the poor. Yes, these are all “bad” things, but they are merely symptoms of the sin; like a fever is not the problem of a cold, the virus causing the fever is. How about I explain it in the context of Adam and Eve? They had everything they needed. Remember perfect? They chose not to obey God. They chose to do things their own way, on their own. They figuratively told God they didn’t need him and they were going to do things their own way. This was the sin. Sin is selfishness over God. Sin is distance away from God.

            This isn’t just Adam and Eve’s story. This is my story. This is our story. We have all at some point in our lives, literally or figuratively, told God that we didn’t need him and we were going to do it on our own. I did that exact thing today. None of us are exempt. It says in Romans 3:23, that ALL have sinned and fallen short of God glory. This doesn’t exclude anyone. We have all pushed God away in some way, shape or form, and at some point in our lives. The bible says that the wages of work is money, but the wages of sin is death. Death means separation from God forever. Death, in the physical and spiritual sense. That sucks right? I know, I agree. And as far as I know we haven’t figured out anything to overcome or halt death. It will come, but there is hope. And as many of you know, it comes from this guy Jesus we’ve been talking about and will talk about some more. But for now, think about maybe some of the symptoms of sin in your life. Think about the ways you’ve tried to do it on your own. Think about the ways you’ve pushed God away out of your life. Then, after you’ve done that, I promise you the rest of the story will be so much sweeter.