https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/05\/BlamingTheWrongThing.mp3<\/a><\/audio>\n\tby Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
Text: Proverbs 3:1-8<\/p>\n
<\/p>\nI. Years ago, an incident happened that makes a good illustration. An older woman bought a\ncup of coffee at a McDonalds, but not having a convenient place to set it, put it between\nher legs. As she drove off, the coffee sloshed and she ended up with burns. \n
A. Whose fault was it? Is it the restaurant’s fault for serving hot coffee? <\/p>\n 1. No because people, including this woman, came to buy hot<\/i> coffee. People\ndon’t like lukewarm coffee.\n
2. The decision on where to place the knowable hot coffee was the woman’s<\/p>\n
3. Yet it was the restaurant which was sued<\/p>\n 4. In essence the restaurant was punished because in its clientele there were\nfoolish people. \n
B. Given any sizable group, you are bound to find problems and sins cropping up.<\/p>\n
1. But is it the group’s fault or the fact that people sin?<\/p>\n 2. Yet, there is a tendency to lump the blame against the group instead of\nnoting that we may have a problem with an individual.\n
C. As an example<\/p>\n 1. There are hypocrites in the church. Is this something exclusive to the\nreligious body or do you find hypocrites in other groups, such as the\nRepublicans and the Democrats?\n 2. Do you only find mistreatment of other people in a church or does a\nbusiness have to deal with rotten employees also?\n 3. Are there only cliques in a congregation or does the local atheists also\nhave their share?\n D. This is not a justification for sin or a call to accept sin. It is merely being logical\nthat in a group, there will be sinners – I Corinthians 11:18-19\n 1. That is because, even as we strive to avoid sin, we all fall prey to it at\ntimes – I John 1:8, 10\n
II. Blaming God<\/p>\n A. I’ve had people tell me that they had turned away from Christianity because God\ndidn’t stop their spouse from leaving them\n
1. They blame following God for their woes.<\/p>\n
2. Yet, was it the individual or God who chose to end the marriage?<\/p>\n
B. Is it not God who says He hates divorce? – Malachi 2:16<\/p>\n 1. So when a person leaves his spouse, is it because God encouraged it or\nbecause he is being disobedient to God?\n
2. Why blame God for man’s disobedience? – James 1:13<\/p>\n
C. When a loved one dies, is it God’s fault? <\/p>\n 1. After all, God warned Adam and Eve not to sin because it would bring\nabout death – Genesis 2:16-17\n 2. Do we forget that the tree of life was in the garden and Adam and Eve\nwere told they could eat of it prior to their sin?\n
D. When a child is abused or killed, do we blame God for not stopping it?<\/p>\n 1. After all, God is the one who opposes crimes against the innocent –\nMatthew 18:6-7\n
2. Notice the same theme. People are going to sin – some in horrific ways<\/p>\n
a. It isn’t God’s fault that people disobey<\/p>\n b. You can only partly blame the world because it promotes bad\nbehavior\n c. But where the blame must squarely rest is on the person who\nchooses to sin – Ezekiel 18:20\n
III. Blaming the Church<\/p>\n A. While I don’t know when it may happen, I can pretty much guarantee that\nsomeone in the church will annoy me, insult me, or do me wrong\n
1. Does this make it the church’s fault?<\/p>\n
2. The church teaches that we are to love each other – John 13:35<\/p>\n
3. We are to strive to get along – Ephesians 4:31-32<\/p>\n
4. So when disagreement arise, it is due to violating the churches teachings <\/p>\n 5. Yet, people will leave churches, blaming the church as a whole, rather than\ndealing with problem individual.\n B. By the way, the sad thing is that leaving changes nothing. Any other group is\ngoing to have a similar set of problems. \n 1. Unhappy people tend to bounce from group to group. Never finding the\nperfect group.\n
2. And never staying to solve the problems.<\/p>\n
IV. Blaming Religion<\/p>\n A. I began thinking about this lesson when I ran across an article whose author was\nupset about a child molester being found in some religiously conservative group\n
1. The author started blaming all conservative Christian religions<\/p>\n 2. I pointed out there are child molesters found in any sufficiently large group\n– for example, in public schools — so to say it was due to conservative\nChristianity was a false accusation that showed the author had a greater\nagenda than just child molestation. I was surprised that I was attacked and\nwas told that the churches of Christ were the greatest offenders in these\nrealms\n a. One, the churches of Christ were not involved in this particular\nstory\n b. Two, no evidence was given that it is more prevalent in any one\nparticular group. (I know of only one religious group that has a\nsignificantly greater incident of sexual abuse of children, and it isn’t\nconsidered conservative in its beliefs.)\n 3. Child molestation is horrible. As noted God is particularly angry about\nthese types of sins. But we can’t throw out reason because an emotion\nstirring, grievous sin was done.\n B. The second claim was that the religion is unable to deal with sexual sins. That it\nrequires expertise that is not found in religion\n 1. Pardon? Sexual sins are sins. The church’s mission is change the world\nand remove sin.\n 2. Given the track record of modern psychology in affecting a lasting change\nin people, I believe the evidence is the other way around.\n
C. The third claim is that sexual offenders can’t change. <\/p>\n 1. I believe this is an outgrowth of the lie that homosexuals can’t change\ntheir behavior.\n
2. The Bible states this is false – I Corinthians 6:11<\/p>\n
3. Christianity is about the radical change of people – II Corinthians 7:10-11<\/p>\n 4. If you believe people can’t change, then of course you won’t affect a\nchange. But Christ is in the business of changing lives completely and\ntotally.\n 5. Do we accept the wisdom of this world over the wisdom of God? – I\nCorinthians 3:19-20\n D. Are there child molesters hiding in the church? Yes. There are sinners of all sorts\nin every group, given a large enough sample\n 1. But should the blame be on the religion that teaches against sin or on the\nsinner who violates that teaching?\n
V. To deal with problems, we need to be objective in pinpointing the source<\/p>\n
A. We can’t be lax, thinking that sins can never occur here – I Corinthians 10:12<\/p>\n B. But we can’t abandon God’s ways of dealing with problems by blaming the wrong\nthing – Proverbs 3:5-7 \n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Proverbs 3:1-8 I. Years ago, an incident happened that makes a good illustration. An older woman bought a cup of coffee at a McDonalds, but not having a convenient place to set it, put it between her legs. As she drove off, the coffee sloshed and she ended up with…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[119,32],"tags":[794,608,179],"class_list":["post-45227","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-audio","category-sermon","tag-criticism","tag-excuses","tag-sin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":29624,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/coffee-bean-religion\/","url_meta":{"origin":45227,"position":0},"title":"Coffee Bean Religion","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 6, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jefferson David Tant My grandfather, J. D. Tant, liked strong coffee. In his time (1861-1941), many ground their own beans. One day while eating with a family, he asked the housewife \"Sister, do you have any coffee beans?\" \"Why, yes brother Tant.\" \"Well,\" he replied, \"If you'll bring me\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/coffee-bean-on-white-300x199.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":6906,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-it-wrong-to-bring-coffee-to-services\/","url_meta":{"origin":45227,"position":1},"title":"Is it wrong to bring coffee to services?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 29, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: First off, I\u2019d like to thank you for your dedication to presenting the valuable information available on this website.\u00a0I know that God will continue to bless your efforts. As for my question, it\u2019s sort of an offshoot of the use of the building and eating in the building. I\u2019ve\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":5922,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/will-bagels-and-coffee-improve-our-worship\/","url_meta":{"origin":45227,"position":2},"title":"Will Bagels and Coffee Improve Our Worship?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"July 18, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"by Ken Weliever \u201cDuring our years of church planting, we tried to change people\u2019s perceptions about what the Sunday worship would look like,\u201d wrote Michelle Lazurek, in a recent Crosswalk.com article. \u201cWe took out pews and replaced them with pub tables and chairs, added lights and a stage and most\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/Coffee-and-Bagel-300x210.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":54951,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/accidents-dont-happen\/","url_meta":{"origin":45227,"position":3},"title":"Accidents Don\u2019t Happen","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"October 5, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Kent Heaton \"Morning Afters Can Be Tough\" the poster proclaims. The American College of Obstetricians & Gynecology announced a new plan to help women who do not want to become pregnant following a tryst with a lover with a drug called the \"Morning After Pill.\" A poster with the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Article"","block_context":{"text":"Article","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/article\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/10\/oops.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":62320,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/establishing-good-habits\/","url_meta":{"origin":45227,"position":4},"title":"Establishing Good Habits","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 29, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: II Peter 1:2-12 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We spend a lot of time and money on education \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We learn fundamental skills and search for information that makes us stand out in the job market \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0B.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0We teach our children, even when they whine and moan about school work, so\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":61774,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/and-just-whose-fault-is-it\/","url_meta":{"origin":45227,"position":5},"title":"And Just Whose Fault Is It?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 2, 2012","format":false,"excerpt":"by Jeffrey W. Hamilton Text: Romans 9:14-24 \u00a0 I.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0I received a note that I found disgusting \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0A woman complained that her husband wasn\u2019t giving her the affection she deserved, so she kicked her husband out and brought in a boyfriend. \u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a01.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0That sin doesn\u2019t justify sin apparently doesn\u2019t matter to her\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Audio"","block_context":{"text":"Audio","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/audio\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45227","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=45227"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/45227\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45227"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=45227"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=45227"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}