Excuses
Notes
Transcript
1 Pt 2:16
1 Pt 2:16
Live as people who are free, not using your freedom as a cover-up for evil, but living as servants of God.
Today I want to talk about something we often do but not realize that it is not correct in the sight of God.
Today’s Topic is Making Excuses
to try to remove blame from
In Simpler sense it can be defined as “The attempt to deny responsibility for an action or for a lack of action”. There is no excuse for sin.
Excuses for wrong actions
We often give excuses for wrong actions we do, This is inherent in our sinful nature. The first examples of making excuse can be found in genesis with Adam and eve.
The man said, “The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate.” Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this that you have done?” The woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”
Aaron made excuse when he made the golden calf Ex 32:22-24
Saul made excuse to Samuel for acting as priest in 1 Sa 13:11-12
By Saul for not fully obeying the Lord in 1 Sa 15:20-21, 24-25
Excuses for inaction
The slothful servant in the parable of servants
Mt 25:24-27, 30
He also who had received the one talent came forward, saying, ‘Master, I knew you to be a hard man, reaping where you did not sow, and gathering where you scattered no seed, so I was afraid, and I went and hid your talent in the ground. Here, you have what is yours.’ But his master answered him, ‘You wicked and slothful servant! You knew that I reap where I have not sown and gather where I scattered no seed? Then you ought to have invested my money with the bankers, and at my coming I should have received what was my own with interest.
And cast the worthless servant into the outer darkness. In that place there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.’
Our laziness leads us to make excuses
The sluggard says, “There is a lion outside!
I shall be killed in the streets!”
But he said to him, “A man once gave a great banquet and invited many. And at the time for the banquet he sent his servant to say to those who had been invited, ‘Come, for everything is now ready.’ But they all alike began to make excuses. The first said to him, ‘I have bought a field, and I must go out and see it. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I go to examine them. Please have me excused.’ And another said, ‘I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.’ So the servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house became angry and said to his servant, ‘Go out quickly to the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in the poor and crippled and blind and lame.’ And the servant said, ‘Sir, what you commanded has been done, and still there is room.’ And the master said to the servant, ‘Go out to the highways and hedges and compel people to come in, that my house may be filled. For I tell you, none of those men who were invited shall taste my banquet.’ ”
“If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and brothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple. Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple. For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost, whether he has enough to complete it? Otherwise, when he has laid a foundation and is not able to finish, all who see it begin to mock him, saying, ‘This man began to build and was not able to finish.’
There is no excuse for Sin
Jesus said to them, “If you were blind, you would have no guilt; but now that you say, ‘We see,’ your guilt remains.
If I had not come and spoken to them, they would not have been guilty of sin, but now they have no excuse for their sin.
If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us. If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness. If we say we have not sinned, we make him a liar, and his word is not in us.
Applications:
Do not make excuses within your heart or in thought when the Holy spirit convicts you.
do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion,
on the day of testing in the wilderness,
2. Remember being a disciple of Christ comes with a cost. That is to not live in old ways.
To another he said, “Follow me.” But he said, “Lord, let me first go and bury my father.” And Jesus said to him, “Leave the dead to bury their own dead. But as for you, go and proclaim the kingdom of God.” Yet another said, “I will follow you, Lord, but let me first say farewell to those at my home.” Jesus said to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.”
If we say we have fellowship with him while we walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth.
3. Remember making excuses for wrong action or even in action is wrong.
Some excuses made by us
Praying, Reading bible, sharing our testimony, not going to church, not giving to someone , giving tithe, when there is a need to apologize to others, when there is need to thank others, When you want something to happen your way
Remember we are free in Christ because of his grace, but that grace is not an excuse for us to sin.
Please examine your past week, did you make excuses for sin, when the holy spirit convicted you or did you apologize immediately, Have you made any excuses for not doing something that you were supposed to. We need to live as servants of God not servants of our desires.