Day 6                                    Broken Fellowship!                                     1 John 1:8,10

              Alexander the Great,  truly was a great leader and a great commander.  After he had conquered the known world,  he sadly exclaimed,  “There are no more worlds to conquer!”  There was another world that Alexander needed to conquer.  It was the world of his heart.  There were several times in his life,  that Alexander was defeated by his own anger.  Alexander had a friend,  his best friend, Cletus the black.  At a celebration of a recent conquest,  he and his friend who had been drinking,  got into an argument.  Celtus reportedly told Alexander that his successes were due to his army not to his own abilities.  Cletus mentioned the greatness of Alexander’s father that Alexander simply inherited.  Alexander became so angry that he grabbed at a knife.  Cletus left but soon came back.  Alexander’s anger could not be assuaged.  He grabbed a spear and thrust it at his friend.  Historians think that he did not mean to kill Cletus,  but the spear went into his heart and his friend died.  The event tore apart Alexander who even attempted to take his own life.  For days “he lay sick calling for his friend.” 

         A moment of sin has a great cost.  The sin in our life costs us strength,  power,  sometimes health.  The greatest cost is our fellowship with God.  It is the most important reason that we exist.  We are created to have fellowship with God. 

1. There is no question that we sin.  We sin daily.  We sin moment by moment.

1 John 1:8   If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us.

2. God dwells in the light.  There is no darkness in Him. 

1 John 1:5  This then is the message which we have heard of him, and declare unto you, that God is light, and in him is no darkness at all.

3.  Therefore,  every sin affects our relationship with God

1 John 1:6  If we say that we have fellowship with him, and walk in darkness, we lie, and do not the truth:

         There are a number of things that are a lie.  One,  that we don’t sin.  If we say we don’t sin we are deceiving ourselves.  We are lying to ourselves.  Second,  if we think that we can live in sin and have fellowship with God,  we are also telling ourselves a lie.  It is not true.   It doesn’t matter if the sin is large or if it is a small white lie. (There is no such thing as a white lie.  All sin is darkness.)  All sin affects our relationship with God. 

         It is a cause for the greatest remorse.  When I was a young man and I did something to hurt my dad,  what bothered me more than the sin, or the punishment was the distance I felt from my parents.  I was sure that it would never be the same again after I had disappointed them.  Fortunately they forgave me and I was once again brought into a relationship with them.   The same is true with our relationship with Christ.  Our goals is to abide in Him.  Our goal is to fellowship with them,  to walk with God.  Our sin breaks that relationship and isolates us from the one who loves us the most. 

But there is a way back. 

1 John 1:9  If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

         Praise the Lord that our sin can be forgiven.  It can be taken from us and instead of being separated from God,  we are separated from that sin.  We can once again walk in the light and have fellowship with Him.