-You and I cannot truly know who we are until we first know where we are in relation to God.

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1 Soul Pursuit Romans 7:15-25 The story is told of two Australian sailors who had just disembarked a ship in England and were walking into town that night, and found their way into a pub. They enjoyed themselves throughout the evening and had perhaps one too many. They walked out of the pub into a dense London fog, completely disoriented, they were wobbling on their feet looking around trying to get some help when they saw a gentleman going into the pub. Unknown to them he was a highly decorated naval officer. And as he came closer, one of them said to him, Say ya bloke, can you tell us where we are? The officer, quite offended, looked at the men and said Do you men know who I am? At which point one of the sailors said to the other, We re really in a mess now. We don t know where we are, and he doesn t know who he is. -You and I cannot truly know who we are until we first know where we are in relation to God. - Hobart Mowrer, the one time professor at Johns Hopkins University, Harvard, and Yale, one time President of the American Psychologist Association, who took his own life at the age of 75, wrote this in an article - For several decades, we psychologists have looked upon the whole matter of sin and moral accountability as a great incubus and acclaimed our liberation from sin as epoch-making. But at length, we have discovered that to be free from sin that is, to have the excuse of being sick rather than being sinful is to court the danger of also becoming lost In becoming amoral, ethically neutral and free, we have cut the very roots of our being, lost our deepest sense of selfhood and identity, and with neurotics themselves we find ourselves asking, Who am I, what is my deepest destiny, what does living really mean? G. K. Chesteron, the famous philosopher theologian, responding to a series of articles called What s wrong with the world, wrote back the shortest letter to the editor probably ever received. He wrote: Dear Sir, Regarding your article What s Wrong With the World : I am. Yours truly, G.K. Chesterton. So what is this thing we call sin? Sin wounds, dismembers, and destroys purpose. In order to define sin, we must first define our purpose. Susannah Wesley

2 understood this. In a letter written in 1725, John Wesley asked his mother to define sin. She wrote, Whatever weakens your reason, impairs the tenderness of your conscience, obscures your sense of God, or takes off your relish of spiritual things; in short, whatever increases the strength and authority of your body over your mind, that thing is sin to you, however innocent it may be in itself. The Bible develops this concept of sin with two main ideas: the idea of missing the mark, like an archer with a bow, and the idea of one who deliberately steps aside in violation of something he knows to be right. But sin is not just the breaking of an abstract law, it is the violation of the person of God. When the Bible identifies the sins of the world as lust, greed, and pride, it is at least saying this much - that sin is to get your eyes off God, and to instead focus on the pursuit of merely earthly existence, where you become the center of all that is, and man becomes the point of reference for you, rather than God. But Jesus takes us even deeper, and describes your heart and mine better than anyone ever has. In Matthew Chapter 5, Jesus taught that hateful anger is murder, even if blood is never spilled; that lust is adultery, even if it s only a thought in the mind. Sin is not just an act, it is an attitude. The offense is not only in the act, but in the intention; not merely in the violation of the law, but in the disposition of the heart. Jesus alone correctly diagnoses our problem. It s easy to see the problem of evil out there, but can we see that the problem starts in here? St. Augustine of Hippo, born in 354 AD, was one of the most important figures in Western Christianity, and one of the greatest minds that ever lived. He ran and ran from God, until finally through his mother he was marvelously converted. Writing to his mother, he said I placed myself behind myself all the time. You took me from behind myself, put me in front of myself. I saw myself, and was horrified. In a poem published in 1846 entitled The Prisoner, poet Emily Bronte wrote Intense is the agony, when the eye begins to see, when the ear begins to hear, when the pulse beings to pound, when the heart begins to throb, when the soul feels its flesh, and when the flesh feels its chains.

3 The Apostle Paul says it best in Romans chapter 7. At the height of his frustration, he not only describes your problem and mine, he offers us the solution too. He essentially says That which I want to do, I do not do. That which I don t want to do, I end up doing. Oh wretched man that I am, who can deliver me from this body of death. Is there an answer? Yes, there is an answer. Thanks be to God, the answer is Jesus Christ. Jesus not only describes our condition, he provides for our malady. Upon seeing Christ, John the Baptist declared Behold, the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world! Hebrews 9:26-28 says Christ has appeared once for all at the culmination of the ages to do away with sin by the sacrifice of himself. Romans 5:8 says God demonstrated his own love for us in this, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us. And in John 10:10, Jesus says I came that you might have life, and have it abundantly. Jesus didn t come to make bad people good; He came to make dead people live! In Islam, you pay to get to heaven, your good deeds must outweigh your bad deeds. And you can never be sure. In Buddhism, you pay you are a reassembling of your previous karma, and you will ultimately live with the consequences of your actions. But in Mark 2:10, before healing a paralyzed man, Jesus says But so you may know that the Son of Man has authority on earth to forgive sins. No one else in history makes this claim. The Buddhist, the Muslim, the Christian, and the agnostic are all seeking answers. Jesus alone offers us forgiveness, and he provides the way, directly through the cross. 2 Corinthians 5:17 says if any man is in Christ, he is a new creation. Behold, the old has gone, the new has come. The beauty of the gospel is that Christ will not only change you, he will change what you want to do. The apostle Paul reminds us many times that our old nature is stubborn, seemingly impossible to overcome. That is why Jesus says we should not be surprised at him saying we must be born again. In John 3:8 Jesus says The wind blows wherever it pleases. You hear its sound, but you cannot tell where it comes from or where it is going. So it is with everyone born of the Spirit. The Holy Spirit works like the wind you cannot see it, but you can surely see the effects. The person is the same, but the hunger is new. Christ alone has the power to change the very appetites within you and me.

4 Adoniram Judson is not a household name. Born in 1788 in Malden, MA, he was so brilliant that when he was12 years old, he was teaching the adult Sunday school class the book of Revelation from the original language. If that isn t intimidating I don t know what is. When he got into college he made the mistake of thinking he was more brilliant than God and ended up disavowing his faith. He had a roommate by the name of Jacob Ames, and they became very close. Ames came into Providence College professing to believe in Christ. He graduated out of Providence professing to be an atheist, and he gave the credit to Adoniram Judson. Years went by, and the faculty kept a close eye on him wondering what such a genius was going to do with his life. He eventually went to NY to be trained to write for theater, but grew tired of that. He was riding back to Boston, and he stopped to check into an inn. The manager said we re so full, I can t give you a room. Judson said he was so tired he would pay the man to let him sleep in the front hall, and he d get up and leave at dawn. The manager said Mr. Judson I do have a room but I wasn t going to rent it out because adjacent to that room is a man who is very sick. A stench of decay is emanating from his body, he is raving and crying out constantly, he is dying. But if you want that room and he won t bother you, I ll give it to you. Judson agreed. He lay awake listening to this man in agony, crying out for help. He tossed and turned, and finally fell asleep. The next day as he was paying his bill he asked the manager what happened. Did the man feel better? The manager said no Mr. Judson the man died in the early hours of the morning. Judson said out of curiosity, what do you do? A stranger comes into your inn and dies on your hands. He says yea that does pose a problem. But I ll tell you something, as I ve looked over his papers and been trying to contact the next of kin, I cannot put together how a man of his credentials and his brilliance has died this way, all alone in these conditions. He was an honors graduate from Providence College in Rhode Island Mr. Judson, his name was Jacob Ames. Judson paused for a moment and said what did you say his name was? His name was Jacob Ames, a Providence College graduate. Judson, in his biography To the Golden Shore says this I got onto my horse and I started to ride back. I could not see for the tears began to pour down my face. Two words were pounding into my heart as the hooves were pounding into the ground, and those two words were death, hell, death, hell, death, hell. I got off my horse and knelt on the dusty road, repented bitterly of the way I had betrayed my God, for Jacob Ames now lay delivering up an account of his own soul because I had knocked out any faith he had in God. Judson went on to become the first American missionary to be sent overseas, and he went to Burma. He found himself in an incredible struggle, where it took him 7 years to lead the first Burmese to Christ. His first and second wife died and several

5 of his children died. Many of his missionary colleagues died. He was eventually imprisoned because of his successful preaching of the gospel. In Burmese folklore there was a belief that someday a man was going to come with a book which would have the truth in it. It took Judson twenty years, but he eventually translated the entire Bible into Burmese, a translation that is still in use today. Unless we recognize our own bankruptcy, will we never really come to a place where some source can fill us, other than our own. That s why the first beatitude says Blessed are the poor in spirit. Jesus is saying is that real transformation happens only after we recognize we are empty without Him, because only when you look inward and realize it s hopeless will you ultimately turn to the giver of life. Jesus describes our condition, provides for our malady, and lastly, he pursues us constantly. This poem is credited to anonymity When God wants to drill a man, And thrill a man, And skill a man When God wants to mold a man To play the noblest part; When He yearns with all His heart To create so great and bold a man That all the world might be amazed, Watch His methods, watch His ways! How He ruthlessly perfects Whom He royally elects! How He hammers him and hurts him, And with mighty blows converts him Into trial shapes of clay which only God understands; While his tortured heart is crying And he lifts beseeching hands! How He bends but never breaks When his good He undertakes; How He uses whom He chooses, And with every purpose fuses him; By every act induces him

6 To try His splendor out- God knows what He s about. It s hard to translate certain Hebrew words into English. Most of us are familiar with Psalm 23:6, which says Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life. But the word follow here in Hebrew is the word that describes a lion chasing down its prey. Imagine a deer looking over its shoulder, thinking, Oh, there s a lion following me. That does not describe how the deer feels. But when the Psalmist says Your goodness and mercy literally will chase me down like a lion, that is the intended image. In Matthew 18:11 Jesus says I came to seek and to save that which was lost. Like the shepherd who leaves the 99 to search for the one lost sheep, how wonderful to know that we have a Savior who is constantly seeking you and me. Thou art a God ready to pardon, gracious and merciful, slow to anger, abounding in steadfast love. Last year, my family visited Honaker, VA, a beautiful place in the SW part of the state. Life moves at a slower pace in places like Honaker. Needless to say, there was no cell phone reception in our cabin. One morning, I went out for a run. After a few miles, I turned off the road and headed down a trail. It wasn t long before I saw a break in the trees up ahead. As I came to the opening, what I saw was breathtaking. A wide open expanse was before me, from one end of the sky to the other. The cliff dropped straight off, down to a meandering river that had carved out a gorge in the valley below. To my right, the mountain peaks rose and fell, continuing off into the distance. They rose higher and higher, touching the clouds and rays of light that pierced the sky. I couldn t tell where the earth ended and heaven began. It was spectacular. And the silence. I closed my eyes, and there was nothing. Only silence. Not even the sounds of the river in the valley below reached my ears. My senses couldn t quite take it all in. I just wanted to stay and absorb it all. But, the one thing I wanted to do more than that, was to go back and tell my family. I wanted someone else to come experience the beauty I had encountered. And so, I went to share the good news. Sometimes, all we get is a glimpse of God s glory. But a glimpse is enough. Do you have the desire to share the good news, about the unparalleled experience of an encounter with Christ and the joy of a transformed heart, with a lost world? If you spend time with him, you can t help but grow to know him. If you know him, you will surely come to love him. And if you love him, your deepest desire will be to obey him. And obeying him means sharing Him and his love with others. For

7 how can they call on the one they have not believed in? And how can they believe in the one of whom they have not heard? And how can they hear without someone preaching to them? And how can they preach unless they are sent? As it is written, How beautiful are the feet of those who bring good news!