So this past Sunday I was fortunate enough to preach to Habitat, our new church, as we continued our journey through the Sermon on the Mount, a series we're calling The GodLife.  On the schedule was Matthew 5: 29-30.

If your right eye causes you to sin, gouge it out and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to be thrown into hell. And if your right hand causes you to sin, cut it off and throw it away. It is better for you to lose one part of your body than for your whole body to go into hell.

As you can see, a section that really isn't the hugs and handshakes of "Your Best Anything Now" Christianity.  This of course is the great part about preaching through Scripture, you cannot ignore the difficult stuff.  Without getting into everything, what was simply stated as the main point was that our attitude and action towards sin must be drastic and severe.  Sin always leads to action, it lead to man being cursed, to God sending Jesus to pay a pay our ransom through His death, as well as it will lead to the final judgement by our sinless and holy God (the only one able to judge and worthy of our worship).

However, the one thing that has challenged me this week is one simple question we can ask ourselves when identifying sin in our lives, is this act or thought contributing in the perversion or preservation of God’s original intent?

If our purpose is to worship God and be in fellowship with Him (as it was in creation and will be in eternity), then my actions and attitudes must preserve God's intent.  However if my actions and attitudes are in anyway contrary to God's original intent, even in the slightest way, then I am living in perversion to my created purpose, and the result is sin, and it must be dealt with.

As you can imagine, preparing for this sermon killed me.  I am destestable in the light of holiness, yet God's grace has made it possible for my rebellion to be forgiven and to be adopted into His family and share in the family business of reconciliation.  So as I walk through the day, my litmus test is simple, is this perversion or preservation of God's idea and original intent?