Bill Johnson shares how sin violates God’s design for our lives. Following God’s design for our lives brings honor to God, and brings pleasure and delight to us. The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. It strengthens our conviction, which increases our awareness of our purpose and original design.

Sin is a violation of design. I’ve got something,
let me read to you just an idea of thought:

When we lose the knowledge of the existence of
a creator, we lose the concept of design. When

we lose the concept of design, we undermine
the discovery of purpose. When we undermine

the discovery of purpose, we remove the conviction
of accountability. When we remove the conviction

of accountability, we undermine the fear of God.
The bible says the fear of God is the beginning of

wisdom. One of the things that seems to be one of
the byproducts of losing the concept of a creator;

one who spoke all things into being; has basically
been to remove all boundaries for how we do life,

and sin just simply is a violation of design.
Everything about sin disturbs and disrupts the

purpose that God created for us, and He created
as such a perfect heavenly father, such a loving

God who just delights in people. He purposed for
us to live without sin so that we could enjoy

life to the absolute fullest sense
maximum and I’ve been thinking and

pondering about this, and have been doing some
teaching on this concept of design recently,

and take for example the subject of greed; if
I get greedy, if I start wanting your stuff,

I start violating the sense of design. The design
is God wants to reward my life for faithfulness

for following the principles of integrity of
wisdom and to reward me with blessing, reward

me with increase, reward me with prosperity,
but when I want your stuff, I’m violating design

and I’m violating His process of giving reward.
When I want your stuff, I’m actually asking or

wanting to take, if you will, something that
doesn’t belong to me. And in a very strange sense,

I actually become a thief in my heart because
I’m working to obtain something that isn’t

God’s design for me to have, or at least not in
that season, and so, unusually so, I become a

thief in my heart because I pursue things that
just simply aren’t mine and whether I take them

or not is not the issue it’s that my heart is
bent on getting things outside of God’s order,

God’s purpose. Homosexuality, it’s a violation
of design. God did not make those human bodies

to come together and to fit in that way. You look
all through the issue sex outside of marriage, all

these things are violation of design. God designed
things to release blessing, pleasure, favor,

delight, joy, peace, all those wonderful things,
into the life of an individual and those things

come to us by responding to design, God
made us a certain way. Doing stuff His way

was never meant to be a punishment
or restriction it was supposed to be

here’s a focus on how you were designed and
following His design always brings about the

greatest amount of honor for God, and pleasure
and delight for you and me. Let’s do it His way.

Hallelujah

We thank you for the cross