Sinner? We All Are.

"If we claim to be without sin, we decieve ourselves and the truth is not in us." 1 John 8 How many people would claim to be sinners in this world? You can ask anybody and most would be offended if you even breached the subject with them. The average person truly sees the things that they do on a normal basis as ok, normal or part of the everyday world. True there are some just rotten people who will shout from the rooftops that they are sinners and going to Hell as a sort of badge of honor or something. They like to be different then the average citizen. There are even Religious people, Christians and others who would tell you that they don't sin, that they also are different then the average citizen. Look at the passage above and think about what it is stating. Believer or not this verse applies! I don't believe that there is one person out there, regardsless of who you are that can truley deny that there has never been anything in your life that was sinful. I will even go a little further, take it away from the Biblical perspective and say that there is bnot one person out there who has never done anything that they knew was wrong but did it anyway. Probably more than once and with relief that nobody found out about it. I know that I have in the past. Now if you are sitting there reading this an dening again that this is the truth then I think that you really need to pause and think. I am writing this today I believe because I think that people, anybody, looses track of what is good and right in their lives. That some may say that the Bible is nothing but bunk, that the things in it are obtrussive, and burdonsome, and that it does not apply to anybody but the Believers. But that is not true. Have you ever wondered where the little voice in your head comes from? What is it that you hear when you are on the wrong side of what is good for your marriage? When you are angry at another? When you did something that three seconds later you thought you shouldn't have done. Here is a hint from Romans 1:19-20 "since what may be known about God is plain to them, because God has made it plain to them. For since the creation of the world God's invinsible qualities - his eternal power and divine nature - have been clearly seen, being understood from what has been made, so that men are without excuse". Every one of us has the knowledge of God, if you choose to accept it or not, and in that knowledge we know right from wrong. We have the little voice that tells us that what e are doing is not good. I am sending a man home from here today who has done something against company policy. As a matter of fact it was straight up wrong. He made a bad descision and it cost him his job. When talking with him he knew it was wrong, and now was worried about his wife finding out that he was fired. He was contemplating lieing to his wife to cover himself but then was worried that God would be mad for the subsequent lie. This is a vision of the battle thet satan wages in this world. The man obviously knew right but chose wrong. The choice he had after was to either do right or do wrong again. The concern was now not only to his wife but also to God. Some might not worry about God, but the coices might be familiar. I think the primary pont to this message today is, that sin in our lives is real. Call it good and bad choices, call it whatever, but it is real. To say that you are not a sinner, in some fashion denies truth, biblical truth or your truth. If you don't want to be honest before God because you may feel He doesn't exist, then be honest with yourself and realize this struggle. For me, I wrestle with this stuff as my heart, the convictions of the Spirit require me to do so. For you, do you really want to be dishonest? Do you really want to lie to even yourself? If you brush this off as nothing, aren't you as John states above, without truth? Lord Jesus, you were the only sinnless man to walk the earth. You came to show us the truth of God so that we may have an example. We know the truth, we know your word, and we know that in that word we are set free. For those that deny this truth they truly then will remain in bondage, I pray that they don't. In your precious name, Amen