Shalom Aleichem...
Reflections is a weekly Christian Teaching Ministry. Each week we will talk about the Bible and lessons we can put to use in our daily life. We will try to, on a weekly basis, provide to you stories, thoughts, and just easy ways to live your life on a straight path.
THIS WEEK'S TEACHING....November 22, 2021
HAPPY THANKSGIVING FAMILY:)
I sometimes ask myself, when pastors are teaching or preaching on sensitive subjects, why do we always preface the message with "now I know I am going to offend some or step on some toes here, but...."
There seems to be an embarrassment in there somewhere. Why do we have to almost ask for permission to speak the Truth? I remember reading Pastor Dale's book on our church, and many others for that fact, and reading about stepping on toes. By the way, I totally recommend that if you have not read, Choosing Your Path, The True Biblical Model of the Church. It is available on Amazon and other book distributors. You will not be sorry you read it:)
My first thought when I read that from my dear friend was, why? And then after talking with PD, and listening to the Holy Spirit tell me, "because people need to be awakened to the truth, I set pen to paper and began to write this series on some subjects that need to be talked about.
So with that said my family, here goes....This is a series of teaching that has taken me about 3 months to write. It is frank, open, honest and yes, may step on some toes.
I have entitled this series of teachings, "But God forgives"...1st in a series of Taking Up Your Cross in Today’s World.
SEXUAL SINS
When I first started studying the ministry and take the step that Jesus was calling me to do. I did not know that I would have the boldness to accept His call into His Ministry and to be here today to tell you why we must take up our Cross and follow Christ.
Luke 14:25-35
25 Large crowds were traveling with Jesus, and turning to them he said:
26 "If anyone comes to me and does not hate his father and mother, his wife and children, his brothers and sisters-- yes, even his own life-- he cannot be my disciple.
27 And anyone who does not carry his cross and follow me cannot be my disciple.
28 "Suppose one of you wants to build a tower. Will he not first sit down and estimate the cost to see if he has enough money to complete it?
29 For if he lays the foundation and is not able to finish it, everyone who sees it will ridicule him,
30 saying, ’This fellow began to build and was not able to finish.’
31 "Or suppose a king is about to go to war against another king. Will he not first sit down and consider whether he is able with ten thousand men to oppose the one coming against him with twenty thousand?
32 If he is not able, he will send a delegation while the other is still a long way off and will ask for terms of peace.
33 In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple.
34 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear."
(NIV)
When the Romans led a criminal to his execution site, he was forced to carry the cross on which he would die. This show total submission by the criminal to the authority of the Roman government and their laws. Large crowds of people were following Jesus with great enthusiasm for Him. Jesus wanted them and us to understand exactly what is expected of us if we are to follow Him.
What does Christ mean when He says that we have to hate our father and mother, wife, sister and brother and even ourselves to be His disciple? First He means that our love for Him has to be unconditional love. The love that we have for our family should be pale compared to our love for Christ. Do you love Christ more than your wife, your husband, your children or your parents? I pray that you do. Secondly, Jesus is telling us that we must put Him first in our lives. Now consider the following list:
Spouse, Work, Money, Children, Health, Pleasure, Processions, Christ
Which of these are most important to you? Did you say Christ? Which of these are you putting first in your life? Are you really putting Christ first in your life or does Christ just come first on Sundays?
Christ must be the most important thing in our lives. I have had mothers tell me that they have to put their babies first and then Christ. Mothers, if it wasn’t for Christ you wouldn’t have those children. All children are a blessing from God, even though at 2:00 o’clock in the morning it may not seem like it sometimes, but they are all blessings from God. Men usually say without my work or money or my health, I wouldn’t be able to provide for my family. Well men you have it wrong. God provides for your every need. You are just working for extras.
If you really want to be a disciple of Christ, you must take up your cross and follow Him. The examples that Jesus gave us in the passage that we read are meant to make us think. A person that exceeds in business doesn’t do his job halfway. A carpenter doesn’t built just a half of a house nor does a general go out to fight a battle without first considering if he can win it. To be a disciple of Christ, we must carefully consider what the cost is. Jesus wants our total submission. That is why He used the term carrying our cross.
This signifies that we are willing to give up every desire in our lives and to submit totally to Christ. Terry and I have found over the last few years that if you really totally submit your lives to Christ and trust Him in everything, you will experience a peace so wonderful that it is impossible to describe.
In verse 33, Jesus said, "In the same way, any of you who does not give up everything he has cannot be my disciple." This takes a lot of trust, but what Christ will give you in return is much better than anything that you had before. Are you giving your tithes? Christ is only asking for 10% of your first fruits. This means 10% of your gross income, not 10% after taxes. Let me tell you what happened to me.
I always had given to the Church, but not 10%. One night God convicted me that I needed to tithe. So I figured out what 10% of my gross salary before taxes or anything was taken out. How was I going to be able to give this much? I was recalculating my budget and there was no way I could do this and still pay the bills and feed my family. But I knew in my heart that I had to give it. Sunday morning I wrote my first check to the church for my tithes. Monday morning I received a call from my boss, and he told me my position had been upgraded and on my next paycheck, I would see an 11% pay raise. So God not only provided the 10% that I needed, but also 10% of that 10% that needed to go to Him. You cannot out give God.
Do you give 10% daily of your time to God? There are 24 hour in the day. You sleep for 1/3 of it (about 8 hours); you work for another 1/3rd of it (8 hours). God wants His 10%, which is 2 hours and 24 minutes. So out of the remaining 8 hours God just wants about 2 1/2 hours. This time could be in prayer, studying your Bible, witnessing to others, helping others or doing volunteer work at the church. How do you give God His time? What do you do?
Read verse 34 and 35 again:
Luke 14:34-35
34 "Salt is good, but if it loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again?
35 It is fit neither for the soil nor for the manure pile; it is thrown out. "He who has ears to hear, let him hear." (NIV)
Let me start at the last statement of these verses. When we read "He who has ears to hear, let him hear", this is a warning. If you tell your child to take out the trash and they don’t get up to do it, then you would probably say "you heard me tell to take out the trash, so you had better do it now." Well Christ is giving us a warning that we as disciples had better be the salt of the earth.
What does it mean to be the salt of the earth? When I was young, and I ate meat, I used to watch my grandmother salt a ham leg after Granddad had brought it home from the market. . She would take salt and rub it into the meat and place it in a cool room. She would ensure that the ham was kept salted. What this did was to both cure the ham (to make the ham good) and preserve it. My sister sent me some country ham and when you cook it without washing it first, it is so salty that you can’t eat it. But on the other hand it will never spoil.
So what does Christ mean for us to be the salt of the earth? When God made this world and everything in it, it was perfect until Adam and Eve’s disobedience introduced sin into the world. Sin causes things to spoil. So the perfect relationship that Adam and Eve had with God began to spoil or deteriorate. The deterioration got so bad that during the time of Noah, God destroyed all living creatures except for one pair of each type of animal and Noah and his family.
So the world had a second chance to turn from sin and obey God, but satan is always on the prowl to cause people to sin and to turn from their relationship with God. So God gave us one more chance. "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life." Christ came into this world so that all may be saved, but each of us would have to make that choice for ourselves to accept Christ has our Lord and Savior.
Having made that choice to accept Christ, then He expects something in return. He expects us to be the salt of the earth. We are to preserve the world, as Christ would have it to be. This means we are to stand up boldly against all that is sin in the world. When Satan tries to tempt people into sin and away from their relationship with God, then we as Christians are to stand up and to speak out boldly against that sin.
In the next four or five teachings of this series we will be looking at the different tactics that satan uses and how we can combat these types of sin. Remember that this isn’t an option, we are required to be the salt of the earth. Salt can lose its flavor. When it gets wet and then dries, nothing is left but a tasteless residue.
Many Christians blend into the world and avoid the cost of standing up for Christ. But Jesus says if Christians lose their distinctive saltiness, they become worthless. How salty are you?
Let’s look at the first sin in the world and see what we can learn from it. God had told Adam and Eve not to eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. When satan confronted Eve and convinced her to eat of the forbidden fruit, he told her what God had said about the tree was a lie. He even told Eve that the opposite of what God had said was true. She wouldn’t die if she ate of the tree, but you will become like God. This sounds so familiar today. Satan uses this same tactic. I can’t remember how many people that have told me that the Bible was just written by a bunch of old men and that everything in the Bible isn’t true. Please don’t get upset with me, but the majority of people saying this are women!
The first thing that a new Christian must learn is that the Bible is the true Word of God, with no errors or contradictions. A baseball team can’t go out and play baseball without first having a rule book to learn how the game must be played. To be a Christian we too must have a rule book and that book is the Bible.
I am a Bible believing Christian and believe every word in the Bible to be the true inspired word of God. If satan can get you to believe that there is one thing incorrect in the Bible, then the entire Bible becomes suspect as to its accuracy, because one person will believe this point to be false and another that point and still another, another point. So who is right or is the entire Bible incorrect?
This is how satan works and how he tricked Eve in the garden and Eve was able to convince Adam. If Adam had been the salt of the earth and told Eve not to eat of the forbidden fruit, then we might be living in the Garden of Eden today instead of slaving to make a living. So remember all sin is evil and comes from satan. Don’t let anyone try to convince you that the Bible isn’t completely true. From this first sin, we should learn that God is all knowing and we must abide by all that He has commanded.
Each week I will be talking about issues of today and how satan can even deceive Christians today. Today I will be talking about sexual sins. The Bible condemns adultery, fornication, and homosexuality. God destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah because of homosexuality. Today this is a big issue. Let’s look at some of the verses in the Bible where God condemns homosexuality.
Now before anyone goes off and condemns me for "hating" people who lead this type of life, let me make things perfectly clear to you....It is the ACT, not the person. I know many people who are homosexual and I honestly love them all. God commands this and I am a follower of Jesus Christ. So PLEASE REMEMBER when you are reading this...It is the ACT, not the person.
Rom 1:26-28
26 Because of this, God gave them over to shameful lusts. Even their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural ones.
27 In the same way the men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion.
28 Furthermore, since they did not think it worthwhile to retain the knowledge of God, he gave them over to a depraved mind, to do what ought not to be done. (NIV)
1 Cor 6:9-10
9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders
10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.
(NIV)
But today more and more people are accepting the homosexual lifestyle as normal. I have heard too many times, that we are intolerant and we should just leave well enough alone. Why should we be so concerned about homosexuals? There are two reasons. First God loves everyone and there are Christian agencies out there where homosexuals can receive help. One ministry is Kerusso Ministries founded by Michael Johnston. He was in the homosexual lifestyle, but through God’s grace, He was delivered and married a woman who also had been in the gay lifestyle. So they know that with God’s help one can be delivered. They have currently help many leave the gay lifestyle.
But my greatest concern is the influence that this is having on our children. There are schools across the nation that are having sensitivity classes. These classes consist of either showing a film or having people to come into the classroom explaining to students, some as young as 1st graders, that it is O.K. if a child has two mothers or two daddies even though your parents objects to this idea. They tell the children that their parents are just old fashion or are intolerant because of their old fashion religious ideas.
This even takes place right here in Honolulu, HI. When my son, Shawn, was in the seventh grade, he brought a note home from school, stating that his class would be viewing a film, and he had to have his permission slip signed for him to see it. I recognized immediately the name of the film and knew it was a pro homosexual training film. I refused to let Shawn watch the film and found out later that he was the only student that the parent had not given consent to view the movie. If we as parents are not informed and do not take a stand, then our children will be brain washed into believing homosexuality is an acceptable way of life.
I am reminded of the following scripture:
Luke 17:1-2
1 Jesus said to his disciples: "Things that cause people to sin are bound to come, but woe to that person through whom they come.
2 It would be better for him to be thrown into the sea with a millstone tied around his neck than for him to cause one of these little ones to sin. (NIV)
I get so upset watching TV. Almost every show on TV during family prime time, either has a homosexual character or talks about homosexuality and our kids are watching it. The homosexual organizations have had a greater influence on our political process than any other organization. To me this is very scary. There are so many facts and figures I could give you but I must move on. Homosexuals need to hear about Christ and His love and we are the ones who has to tell them, but we are not to be tolerant of the sin of homosexuality. We must teach our children that this is not an acceptable alternative lifestyle. Pray for the deliverance of anyone that you may know that is in the gay lifestyle and share the Good News with them.
Next, what is fornication? According to the Webster’s II New College Dictionary "fornication is sexual intercourse between a man and woman not married to each other". The Bible tells us that this is a sin. People have asked me, several times, "how could you and Terry go 7 years in celibacy prior to getting married in 2013?" BECAUSE IT IS A SIN TO FORNICATE!!!
Gal 5:19-21
19 Now the works of the flesh are evident, which are: adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lewdness,
20 idolatry, sorcery, hatred, contentions, jealousies, outbursts of wrath, selfish ambitions, dissensions, heresies,
21 envy, murders, drunkenness, revelries, and the like; of which I tell you beforehand, just as I also told you in time past, that those who practice such things will not inherit the kingdom of God. (NKJ)
Eph 5:3-5
3 But fornication and all uncleanness or covetousness, let it not even be named among you, as is fitting for saints;
4 neither filthiness, nor foolish talking, nor coarse jesting, which are not fitting, but rather giving of thanks.
5 For this you know, that no fornicator, unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, has any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and God. (NKJ)
These are pretty strong words and really there isn’t much to add, except that the entertainment industries are selling the message that sex before marriage is O. K.
Even our schools by passing out free condoms are giving our kids the message that sex before marriage is acceptable. What are you teaching your kids? Remember the verse we read earlier about being thrown into the sea?
The last thing I want to talk about today is adultery. Adultery is having sex with someone who is not your spouse. Well, you may say, I have never done that. But what did Jesus say about adultery?
Matt 5:27-28
27 "You have heard that it was said, ’Do not commit adultery.’
28 But I tell you that anyone who looks at a woman lustfully has already committed adultery with her in his heart. (NIV)
Wow! Are you still innocent?
So let us remember the following verses and obey them.
The following verse about your body being the temple of the Holy Spirit is probably the verse most often taken out of context, but it really deals with sexual immorality. Read the following verses and see what the Apostle Paul has to say about the subject:
1 Cor 6:18-20
18 Flee from sexual immorality. All other sins a man commits are outside his body, but he who sins sexually sins against his own body.
19 Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own;
20 you were bought at a price. Therefore honor God with your body. (NIV)
All entertainment and advertising today is geared toward peaking our sexual interest. This is done by showing provocative and near naked women and men in commercials. Prime time TV has resorted to sex to entice viewers. The Disney owned ABC showed a hour long Victoria Secrets show. I didn’t watch it, but the reviews said that it was just short of soft-core porn.
There are strip clubs in every town, porn book stores and movie rental stores that rent hard-core porn movies. But worst of all is the Internet, where hard-core porn can be obtained free.
Most schools and libraries do not have filters that blocks such sites so our children are not protected and can obtain access to hard-core porn. Porn is just as additive as drugs or gambling is.
Promise Keepers reports that one out of three men who attended its recent conference admitted that they struggle with pornography. Focus on the Family reports that one out of seven pastors who call its toll-free help line say they are addicted to pornography.
There are hundreds of thousands of porn sites on the Internet. One study of nearly 10,000 Internet users found that 8% were sexually compulsive or addictive. Not all of these users were men. Women are also additive to porn and there are ministries to help both men and women who are additive to porn. This is alarming. That is why we must ensure that any computer that our kids have access to has an Internet filter that blocks all porn sites. My Internet provider is one that blocks all objectionable sites, so there is no temptation.
What can we do?
Send letters or e-mails or call your elected officials and let them know that you want laws all ready on the books governing pornography enforced. Let your elected officials know that you want stronger laws protecting our children and traditional family values. Let companies that advertise on sexually explicit programs know that you will not buy their products. It works! There are several companies that Maria and I have been boycotting for years, because of their acceptance of sinful ways.
The Salvation Army was going to give health benefits to homosexual and live-in couples, but the outcry from the Christian community was so loud that they reversed their decision. State Farm Insurance was also going to give live-in partners and homosexual couples health benefits, but again the outcry was loud and they changed their minds. I sent an e-mail to State Farm telling them that if they did this, I would cancel my insurance policies on my house and my 2 cars. They listen. I would have canceled my insurance with them. Carrying my cross is more important than what any company or business can do for me.
Disney still hasn’t listen yet. That is why, after many years, the boycott against Disney is still being supported by the Southern Baptist, Catholic League, American Family Association and 2 dozen more organizations. Disney owned companies produces more MA rated movies than any one else and they endorse the Gay and Lesbian association.
You must take up your cross and be the salt of the earth. Stay informed and take action.
There is still one other sin we must talk about. I told you this was a tough teaching. A sin that I have only heard one other minister preach about in my lifetime. That sin is the sin of divorce. What did Jesus say concerning divorce?
Mark 10:2-12
2 Some Pharisees came and tested him by asking, "Is it lawful for a man to divorce his wife?"
3 "What did Moses command you?" he replied.
4 They said, "Moses permitted a man to write a certificate of divorce and send her away."
5 "It was because your hearts were hard that Moses wrote you this law," Jesus replied.
6 "But at the beginning of creation God ’made them male and female.’
7 ’For this reason a man will leave his father and mother and be united to his wife,
8 and the two will become one flesh.’ So they are no longer two, but one.
9 Therefore what God has joined together, let man not separate."
10 When they were in the house again, the disciples asked Jesus about this.
11 He answered, "Anyone who divorces his wife and marries another woman commits adultery against her.
12 And if she divorces her husband and marries another man, she commits adultery." (NIV)
Now in Matthew Jesus also states:
Matt 19:9
9 I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery." (NIV)
It is very clear from these verses that divorce is a sin. God intended marriage to last a lifetime. When we marry God sees us as one person, one flesh, never to be separated.
Jesus did give one reason for divorce and that is only on the grounds of marital unfaithfulness, adultery. So why does 40% of all marriages end in divorce, even in the church? Is it today, just like in the days of Moses, we have hardened our hearts to God, and our ministers in our churches today do not want to offend their congregations? If it is in the Bible, then it should be shouted from the pulpit.
Not only do we see that divorce is a sin, but we also see from the above scripture, that if you divorce, then you are not to remarry as long as your ex-spouse is still living. If you do remarry, then you have just committed adultery.
Let’s look at one more verse:
1 Cor 7:10-16
10 To the married I give this command (not I, but the Lord): A wife must not separate from her husband.
11 But if she does, she must remain unmarried or else be reconciled to her husband. And a husband must not divorce his wife.
12 To the rest I say this (I, not the Lord): If any brother has a wife who is not a believer and she is willing to live with him, he must not divorce her.
13 And if a woman has a husband who is not a believer and he is willing to live with her, she must not divorce him.
14 For the unbelieving husband has been sanctified through his wife, and the unbelieving wife has been sanctified through her believing husband. Otherwise your children would be unclean, but as it is, they are holy.
15 But if the unbeliever leaves, let him do so. A believing man or woman is not bound in such circumstances; God has called us to live in peace.
16 How do you know, wife, whether you will save your husband? Or, how do you know, husband, whether you will save your wife? (NIV)
Let me tell you a true story. There was this man named Jim and a fellow worker had been witnessing to him for several months. Finally Jim accepted Christ and started attending church on Sundays and reading his Bible. But there was one problem. Jim’s wife didn’t want anything to do with this Jesus. So every night they would go upstairs to bed, but Jim would lie awake until his wife fell asleep. Then he would quietly get out of bed and go downstairs and read his Bible for an hour.
Jim knew that his wife would not approve and if she found out there would be another huge argument. This went on for about a year. This one night Jim got up and went down stairs as usual and was reading his Bible, when he heard the stairs squeak. Jim knew his wife had caught him and there was about to be a huge fight. His wife came into the room and told Jim that she wanted what he had. Jim not understanding what his wife meant said "What?" Jim’s wife explained that she had watched him for a year sneaking out of the bed and going downstairs to read his Bible. She said that she has seen a change in him and that she wanted what he had found. She wanted Jesus too.
Husbands and wives, if you want your spouse to change, then you must change first. Remember in classes my mantra is always, "the only one you can change is yourself.
Give your life to Christ and obey His commands and follow His will and put Him first in your life, then you will see miracles in your life and the life of your spouse, but you have to change first.
I have stepped on some toes here today and I do not apologize for it, for the Word of God is true, yesterday, today and tomorrow. It is the founding Bible verse of the Foursquare church, Hebrews 13:8. It is never changing. God forgives, but you first must repent and ask for His forgiveness. Do so today, so God can bless your lives.
We have all sinned and fallen short of the glory of God. There is not one of us here today that have not sinned. And we know that the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
If you don’t know Christ Jesus as you Savior, then God had a reason for you reading Reflections today. You are not reading this teaching by luck or coincidence. I don’t believe in either one. God has you reading today for a purpose. That purpose is so that you can accept Jesus Christ as your Savior. All you have to do is ask forgiveness for your sins, and with His help you will turn from those sins. Believe in your heart that Jesus is the Son of God and that He suffered and died on the cross for you and that He lives today and sits at the right hand of the Father in heaven. Confess with your mouth that Jesus is Lord. It is that easy.
Now there may be Christians here today that I have stepped on your toes. I offer no apology. God’s word is true and God does punish sin. If there is anyone here today that has a sin in his or her life, then now is the time to get it straight with God. If you have a sexual addiction, there is help. First with God and then with Christian counseling.
If you need to accept Christ do it now; you may not have another chance. If you need to get on your knees at the alter in humility to set things straight with God, do so now. Dr. Billy gave us a prayer to say for this occasion:
Dear Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner, and I ask for Your forgiveness. I believe You died for my sins and rose from the dead. I turn from my sins and invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as my Lord and Savior. In Your Name.
Amen.
I love you all:)
DID YOU EVER WONDER???
A follow on question todays teaching...How can I learn to hate my own sin??
Romans 12:9 says, “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” These actions are two sides of the same coin, and they are mutually dependent. Our grip on the good will be tenuous indeed if we don’t learn to hate the evil.
Hating sin in other people is comparatively easy. We’re adept at finding the speck in our neighbor’s eye, even while the plank is embedded in our own (Luke 6:42). Most of us have a pet sin or two that we have a high tolerance for and readily excuse. Poet George Herbert called it that “one cunning bosom-sin.” So, hating our own heart’s sin is easier said than done. Our flesh is sin’s ally (Galatians 5:17), and we fight against our own natural desires in our struggle to “be holy in all” (1 Peter 1:15).
The first step in hating our own sin is to acknowledge that we have sin. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). We must be open and honest before the Lord. David’s prayer should be a model for us: “Search me, O God, and know my heart. . . . See if there is any offensive way in me” (Psalm 139:23-24). When we fear God (Proverbs 8:13) and humbly acknowledge our sin, we are in a position to receive His comfort (Isaiah 57:15).
The better we know God, the more we will hate our sin. The psalmist speaks of the “splendor” of God’s holiness (Psalm 29:2). The clearer that splendor is to us, the more we will eschew anything that threatens to obscure or distort that brilliance. The lover of light will naturally hate darkness. The closer we draw to God’s beauty, the uglier our own sin becomes to us, because imperfection, side by side with perfection, is always glaringly insufficient (Isaiah 6:5). To better know God, we must spend time in His Holy Word, the Bible (Psalm 119:11, 163). And we must commune with Him in prayer. It is impossible to pray in earnest and not feel convicted by our own sin. Prayer leads to a hatred of sin as it leads us into a closer relationship with God.
The better we understand the consequences of sin, the more we will hate sin in our own lives. Sin is what separates us from God. Sin enslaves us (John 8:34). Sin is what brought sickness, sorrow, shame, and death into the world (Genesis 2:17). Sin is the root cause of all war, fighting, pain, and injustice. Sin is why hell exists. When we consider the horrible effects of sin in the world at large, we are grieved to discover the same sin lurking in our own hearts. We hate that we contribute to the pain of the world.
The better we understand the source of sin, the more we will hate it in ourselves. Satan is the originator of sin (Ezekiel 28:15). Before salvation, we were children of the devil (John 8:44). As believers, we still face Satan’s temptations and struggle with the “old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires” (Ephesians 4:22). When we “gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Romans 13:14), we are dabbling again in the uncleanness and corruption of the devil.
The more we love God, the more we will hate our sin. We are not our own, but we belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:20). The Lord has given us the very breath of life, and our sin grieves Him (Ephesians 4:30). Why would we tolerate that which grieves the One we love? A mother hates the sickness that incapacitates her child, and, if we really love the Lord, we will hate the sin that grieves Him.
The more clearly we see our potential, the more we will hate our sin. Think what the soul of man is made for! We are made to love, obey, and glorify our Maker. We are made to reason, invent, grow, and explore. What an excellent and high and holy work we are called to! Sin is what disables and perverts our God-given potential. Once we realize God’s original plan for us, it becomes natural to hate sin.
The more we care about our unsaved friends and family, the more we will hate our sin. When others see our good works, they glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). However, if what they see is our sin, God’s enemies will blaspheme (2 Samuel 12:14). As our personal sin is a detriment to our testimony, we hate it all the more. Our light should not be hidden under a bushel basket (Matthew 5:15). Light was meant to shine, and sin shrouds.
The better we understand the sacrifice of Christ, the more we will hate our sin. Jesus, the only innocent Man, shed His blood to save us from our sin. In a very real way, our sin caused His death. Our sin scourged Him, beat Him, mocked Him, and finally nailed Him to a cross. And “we turned our backs on him and looked the other way” (Isaiah 53:3, NLT). Once we understand the price Jesus paid for our salvation, we will love Him even more, and we will hate what caused His pain.
The more often we consider eternity, the more we will hate our sin. “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). No one will still love sin after he dies. The sooner we think of sin not as a pleasure but as the basis of the coming judgment, the sooner we will hate our own sin.
Christians still sin even after being saved. The difference is that we no longer love our sin; in fact, we hate the impurity within us and engage in a spiritual battle to defeat it. Praise the Lord, we have the victory in Christ: “The word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14).
A follow on question todays teaching...How can I learn to hate my own sin??
Romans 12:9 says, “Hate what is evil; cling to what is good.” These actions are two sides of the same coin, and they are mutually dependent. Our grip on the good will be tenuous indeed if we don’t learn to hate the evil.
Hating sin in other people is comparatively easy. We’re adept at finding the speck in our neighbor’s eye, even while the plank is embedded in our own (Luke 6:42). Most of us have a pet sin or two that we have a high tolerance for and readily excuse. Poet George Herbert called it that “one cunning bosom-sin.” So, hating our own heart’s sin is easier said than done. Our flesh is sin’s ally (Galatians 5:17), and we fight against our own natural desires in our struggle to “be holy in all” (1 Peter 1:15).
The first step in hating our own sin is to acknowledge that we have sin. “If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us” (1 John 1:8). We must be open and honest before the Lord. David’s prayer should be a model for us: “Search me, O God, and know my heart. . . . See if there is any offensive way in me” (Psalm 139:23-24). When we fear God (Proverbs 8:13) and humbly acknowledge our sin, we are in a position to receive His comfort (Isaiah 57:15).
The better we know God, the more we will hate our sin. The psalmist speaks of the “splendor” of God’s holiness (Psalm 29:2). The clearer that splendor is to us, the more we will eschew anything that threatens to obscure or distort that brilliance. The lover of light will naturally hate darkness. The closer we draw to God’s beauty, the uglier our own sin becomes to us, because imperfection, side by side with perfection, is always glaringly insufficient (Isaiah 6:5). To better know God, we must spend time in His Holy Word, the Bible (Psalm 119:11, 163). And we must commune with Him in prayer. It is impossible to pray in earnest and not feel convicted by our own sin. Prayer leads to a hatred of sin as it leads us into a closer relationship with God.
The better we understand the consequences of sin, the more we will hate sin in our own lives. Sin is what separates us from God. Sin enslaves us (John 8:34). Sin is what brought sickness, sorrow, shame, and death into the world (Genesis 2:17). Sin is the root cause of all war, fighting, pain, and injustice. Sin is why hell exists. When we consider the horrible effects of sin in the world at large, we are grieved to discover the same sin lurking in our own hearts. We hate that we contribute to the pain of the world.
The better we understand the source of sin, the more we will hate it in ourselves. Satan is the originator of sin (Ezekiel 28:15). Before salvation, we were children of the devil (John 8:44). As believers, we still face Satan’s temptations and struggle with the “old self, which is being corrupted by its deceitful desires” (Ephesians 4:22). When we “gratify the desires of the sinful nature” (Romans 13:14), we are dabbling again in the uncleanness and corruption of the devil.
The more we love God, the more we will hate our sin. We are not our own, but we belong to God (1 Corinthians 6:20). The Lord has given us the very breath of life, and our sin grieves Him (Ephesians 4:30). Why would we tolerate that which grieves the One we love? A mother hates the sickness that incapacitates her child, and, if we really love the Lord, we will hate the sin that grieves Him.
The more clearly we see our potential, the more we will hate our sin. Think what the soul of man is made for! We are made to love, obey, and glorify our Maker. We are made to reason, invent, grow, and explore. What an excellent and high and holy work we are called to! Sin is what disables and perverts our God-given potential. Once we realize God’s original plan for us, it becomes natural to hate sin.
The more we care about our unsaved friends and family, the more we will hate our sin. When others see our good works, they glorify our Father in heaven (Matthew 5:16). However, if what they see is our sin, God’s enemies will blaspheme (2 Samuel 12:14). As our personal sin is a detriment to our testimony, we hate it all the more. Our light should not be hidden under a bushel basket (Matthew 5:15). Light was meant to shine, and sin shrouds.
The better we understand the sacrifice of Christ, the more we will hate our sin. Jesus, the only innocent Man, shed His blood to save us from our sin. In a very real way, our sin caused His death. Our sin scourged Him, beat Him, mocked Him, and finally nailed Him to a cross. And “we turned our backs on him and looked the other way” (Isaiah 53:3, NLT). Once we understand the price Jesus paid for our salvation, we will love Him even more, and we will hate what caused His pain.
The more often we consider eternity, the more we will hate our sin. “Man is destined to die once, and after that to face judgment” (Hebrews 9:27). No one will still love sin after he dies. The sooner we think of sin not as a pleasure but as the basis of the coming judgment, the sooner we will hate our own sin.
Christians still sin even after being saved. The difference is that we no longer love our sin; in fact, we hate the impurity within us and engage in a spiritual battle to defeat it. Praise the Lord, we have the victory in Christ: “The word of God abides in you, and you have overcome the wicked one” (1 John 2:14).
BOOKS OF THE BIBLE...A TEACHING
Where in the Bible Can I Find the Comfort That God Cares for Me?
God is very big, and we are very small. Is it reasonable to think that God cares for us as humans, let alone for each of us as individuals? David wondered about this in Psalm 8. After reflecting on the majesty and glory of God in verses 1–2, he asks, “When I consider your heavens, the work of your fingers … what is mankind that you are mindful of them, human beings that you care for them?” (vv. 3–4). Even though it is mind-boggling that the God of the universe would pay any attention to the situations and needs of any of us, the Bible is clear that indeed he does, and intimately so.
One reason for God’s care for us comes from what David immediately goes on to say in Psalm 8: “You have made them [humans] a little lower than the angels and crowned them with glory and honor” (v. 5). This reflects the fact that God created humans to bear his image (Genesis 1:27) and to be in a personal relationship with him. As such, he cares about us as the pinnacle of his created order; he cares for those he created to be in a relationship with him.
The apostle Peter clearly states God’s care in 1 Peter 5:7, “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you,” so there should be no doubt that God cares for us as humans generally (the “you” in this verse is plural). But the question remains: Does he care for us specifically as individuals? Does he care for me? Again, the biblical answer is clear and repeated—yes! Consider some of the evidence.
In Psalm 139, David makes amazing statements about God’s knowledge of David himself as an individual: “You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. You know when I sit and when I rise; you perceive my thoughts from afar. You discern my going out and my lying down; you are familiar with all my ways. Before a word is on my tongue you, Lord, know it completely” (vv. 1–4). It would seem that if God did not care for me, he wouldn’t care about me. But just the opposite is true. These verses describe an intimate, thorough, divine knowledge of an individual. It follows, then, that because God cares to know so much about the person, he will care profoundly for the person.
Another indicator that God cares for us as individuals is the very concept of prayer. God created us to be in relationship with him, and as everyone knows, good communication is vital for a good relationship. Because that is what God wants with us, he gave us the gift of prayer as a means of communicating with him for the sake of a healthy relationship with him.
Any prayer in the Bible would illustrate this, but David is an especially great example throughout the psalms, many of which are prayers to God. For example, he says, “Have mercy on me, Lord, for I am faint” (Psalm 6:2), and “Turn, Lord, and deliver me; save me because of your unfailing love” (Psalm 6:4). The assumption that undergirds the very concept of prayer is that it is a God-given means of person-to-person communication.
Jesus spoke of the depth of God’s care for individuals when he said, “Are not two sparrows sold for a penny? Yet not one of them will fall to the ground outside your Father’s care. And even the very hairs of your head are all numbered. So don’t be afraid; you are worth more than many sparrows” (Matthew 10:29–31; see also Matthew 6:29).
The practical application of this is for us to trust God more and be less anxious. Jesus said, “Do not worry about your life, what you will eat or drink; or about your body, what you will wear.… Your heavenly Father knows that you need them” (Matthew 6:25, 32). This was Peter’s point in assuring his readers of God’s care: “Cast all your anxiety on him because he cares for you” (1 Peter 5:7; see also Philippians 4:6–7).
It makes sense that God cares for those individuals who have trusted in Jesus and are therefore accepted by God, but does God care about unbelievers, sinners, those who have rejected his Son? Jesus answers this question in Luke 15:3–7 through a story about a shepherd who leaves ninety-nine sheep that are safe to search for one sheep that is lost. When he finds it, he rejoices. Jesus concludes, “I tell you that in the same way there will be more rejoicing in heaven over one sinner who repents than over ninety-nine righteous persons who do not need to repent” (v. 7).
This love of God for the individual in need of salvation explains why, while Philip was successfully spreading the gospel among the Samaritans (Acts 8:4–8), God directed him to go to the middle of nowhere and talk to one man, an Ethiopian eunuch, who needed to know about Jesus Christ (Acts 8:26–35). As a result, that one man believed and was baptized (vv. 36–40).
But the greatest evidence that God cares for all individuals is the fact that he sent his Son to die in the place of each of us in order to meet the greatest need any of us have, and that is to be forgiven and made right with him (Romans 5:6–8; 2 Corinthians 5:21; 1 Peter 3:18; 1 John 4:10).
Even though it may seem strange to us, God cares so much for his children that he lovingly disciplines or corrects them. “The Lord disciplines those he loves, as a father the son he delights in” (Proverbs 3:12, quoted in Hebrews 12:6). So if you are a child of God through Jesus Christ (John 1:12) and are being disciplined by God, take it as an indication of his Fatherly love, not his anger. This is why the previous verse in Proverbs 3 says, “My son, do not despise the Lord’s discipline, and do not resent his rebuke” (v. 11). Why? Because God does it for your good (Hebrews 12:10–11).
HAVE A SAFE AND BLESSED WEEK:)
Ho'omaikaʻi ka Pua iā kākou