Sunday service, Albu van Eeden, 08 Oct 2017
2Cor 11:3
But I fear, lest by any means, as the serpent beguiled Eve through his subtilty, so your minds should be corrupted from the simplicity that is in Christ.
In the New Testament we read about a woman who lost a coin (Luke 15:8-11). We don’t know its worth but it reminds us of the widow’s mite and how the Lord said she had given the most (Mark 12:41-44). We don’t know, maybe it was 20c. Love doesn’t make sense to your logical brain and it’s so easy for the devil to hide the love of God from us and it is also easy for the devil to hide the love of a parent for a child and the child doesn’t know how much the parent loves the child. The woman lost a coin and we read in the middle of the night she started looking for it. That is so simple. With respect, it’s stupid. Why didn’t she wait for the day? She was so anxious to find that coin at night. That’s not the end of the story. She found the coin and you would expect her to go and sleep. Instead she goes to her neighbours, wakes them up in the middle of the night and says, “Rejoice with me I have found my coin.” That’s a crazy thing to do for a worthless coin. It shows God’s love for worthless people like you and I.
He was willing to be beaten for you and me while we were blind to the love of God. But what did He find on earth? He found sin. God hates pride, lust, anger and other sin. He cannot stand it. When He finds us He finds us full of sin and gross evil in our lives. God loved us so much that He was willing to become sin for us.
This is the love God had for Adam and Eve but the devil had to find a way so that they wouldn’t know His love for them. He managed to twist their minds. How? The devil asked a question. Eve thought God was prohibiting them from the tree and He didn’t want them to be like Him. By believing that lie, they locked the door to be able to see God’s love in their lives.
To a person who is confused and doesn’t follow God with all his heart, this is a problem. People who gossip do it in the same way. They don’t say a person is so bad. Then you could accuse them and say they are doing a bad thing. They just ask a question and allow it to work on your brain. Your mind will draw the wrong conclusions. You can’t say they have said evil about a person. Friends, if you are doing that you are evil even if you haven’t done the actual gossiping.
Sin changes the way we look at things. The sin of pride will cause a person to look at everything from a different perspective. Another sin is the love of money. Judas betrayed Jesus for a few silver pieces. Anxiety and hopelessness also blinds a person. He shows Himself faithful to those who are faithful to Him.
We read in Ps 119:116, “Uphold me according unto thy word, that I may live: and let me not be ashamed of my hope”. Do not let your hopes be dashed. Has the devil blinded you to the loving God who came to this earth? Remember He came for you.
Choir
German translation
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