Audio recording Sermon manuscript: Not believing in God, not believing that God will act, is behind much of the rationale that we tell ourselves in order to justify our sins. Our internal dialogue inside our heads convinces us that other factors are much more important for our happiness rather than God. God is nowhere to be seen, so we have to do things on our own. Take the fourth commandment, “You shall honor your father and your mother,” for example. God attaches a promise to this commandment. He says that those who honor their fathers and mothers will have life go well with them. They will enjoy long life on the earth. But what have we told ourselves when we have been disobedient to our fathers and mothers? Haven’t we sounded just like the serpent in the Garden? “We surely won’t enjoy any happiness from obeying our father and mother. There’s no way that’s going to happen, regardless of what God might say about it. After all, what they are requiring me to do is the very thing that I do not want to do! I’m not enjoying that at all.” So there is no trust that God is able to make it so that even though things might not be going how we want them to go at that moment, that God will turn it all for the good in the end. It’s as though God didn’t exist and hasn’t made his will known. Or take the sixth commandment as an example, “You shall not commit adultery.” Why do people commit adultery? Why do people leave their spouse for somebody else? Isn’t it because they believe that they have to take their happiness into their own hands? If they don’t look out for themselves, then who will? In the midst of trouble they do not call upon God or consult his commandments and promises. They have another plan in place that they believe will make them much more blessed or happy. And why do people steal? Isn’t it because they believe that if they do not cheat their neighbor they will be in the poor house? They have to screw over other people otherwise they will be screwed over. If they don’t get such-and-such an amount, then woe to them. If they do get such-and-such an amount, then they have won at this game called life. God does not enter into it at all. Understanding how it is as though God were completely absent or irrelevant goes a long way in explaining why people do what they do. It also sheds light on something people often don’t agree with in the Bible. The Bible teaches that not only do people sin, but they are dreadfully sinful. Often people don’t understand why there is such a drastic condemnation of ordinary folks. When we think of people being bad we think of somewhat exotic, somewhat rare activities. We do not think of the countless ways that we ignore God or disbelieve what he says. Most people, including Christians, just don’t realize that that’s a problem. Most people are simply doing what they have been doing ever since they were born. They are looking out for their own interests. They want what’s best for them. They’ve always cut corners to bring about their desired outcomes. They’ve always believed that happiness comes apart from God. A great many people, including Christians, never hear what God has to say about how to live. If they do happen to hear what God has to say, they probably don’t believe it because his advice seems terribly impractical. I could give all kinds of examples of Jesus’s advice seeming impractical just from Jesus’s Sermon on the Mount, from which our reading this morning comes. Jesus says, “Do not be angry.” “Do not lust.” “Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you.” “Give to the one who asks, and do not turn away from the one who wants to borrow from you.” “Do not worry.” “Do not store up treasures for yourselves on earth.” “You cannot serve both God and Mammon.” I hope that you are not so blind that you haven’t felt at least a couple zingers in there, where you have to admit that you have not believed Jesus. Jesus says these things, and many more like them, not because he is evil. He