Our Redeemer - pt. 1

On Monday, I gave the message at the New Hope Leeward WIRED Women's Celebration. Not everything went as planned and I had to modify my message, pare it down some to fit in the time I ended up having. Since I had to chop a good part of it (because they were all good parts) I have decided that I'll share the message in my blog. It will take a few posts to get it all, but I'm sure you won't mind reading a serial! So here's the first part:
Our redeemer lives! What comfort this gives us! At this time of year, our thoughts so easily turn to the cross and the resurrection. And they are glorious indeed because we so needed a redeemer. Sin and death are our lot from the moment we're conceived. Way back in Genesis 3, Adam and Eve sinned, changing the nature of their descendants from the pure image of God they were intended to be. All children born to the man and the woman who were fashioned directly by God’s hands would be born with a sinful nature. But God promised the woman that one of her seed would destroy the serpent who had destroyed her.
Adam and Eve’s children and their children’s children became very creative with their sin. Galatians 5:19-21 tells us that the acts of the sinful nature are “sexual immorality, impurity and debauchery; idolatry and witchcraft; hatred, discord, jealousy, fits of rage, selfish ambition, dissensions, factions and envy; drunkenness, orgies, and the like.”
This may seem so modern to you, like maybe the apostle Paul was looking down through history to 21st century America, but he wasn’t. 1 Corinthians 10:13 tells us that “No temptation has seized you except what is common to man.” Ever since the angel stood at the gates of Eden to bar Adam and Eve’s way back to the tree of life, mankind has been struggling with the same sinful nature, the same inclination to sin. There are lots of lists of the sins of man in the bible.
Ephesians 5:3-4 gives us: or of greed, obscenity, foolish talk or coarse joking.
Colossians 3:5 = lust, evil desires
1 Corinthians 6:9-10 = nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor slanderers nor swindlers.
1 Timothy 1:9-10 = lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly, the unholy and irreligious; for murderers, perverts, for slave traders and liars and perjurers—whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine
This is the nature we have received from Adam and Eve. We could cull a much larger list from the bible and we could add specific sins from our day today, couldn’t we?This is depressing, isn’t it? When it stands up here on its own, it is seriously depressing! In the four thousand years since the first book of the bible was penned, mankind hasn’t evolved at all! We stink! This is why we need a redeemer! ...