MESSAGES
Demands of Commitment-Part III
From Egypt to the Promised Land
Overcoming Obstacles part - II
Overcoming Obstacles Part -III
Receiving the Promises of God -I
Receiving the Promises of God - II
Reformation: Going Beyond the Obvious
Well Done is Better Than Well Said
When the Church is Gone - Part II
When the Church is Gone - Part III
When the Church is Gone - Part IV
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THE SIN THAT SO EASILY BESETS YOU HEBREWS 12:1-2 The scene given here is that of a great arena where
we Christians on earth are the players on the field, and those
saints who have gone on to be with the Lord are the cheering fans
in the stands. Paul says here, that since the fans are there
cheering for us, we should lay aside anything that hinders our
progression in Christ. He
groups these hindrances into to groups.
1) weights - these
are not necessarily sins, but they are activities that hinder
our growth. There maybe
nothing at all wrong with an athlete eating chocolate, but if
a wrestler is trying to lose weight, chocolate is a hindrance
to that goal. As Christians
there are oftentimes activities and relationships in our lives
that hinder us from drawing closer to God. These are weights and they must be laid aside.
Weights are individualized. God must deal with us on an
individual basis and point out to us the weights in our lives.
Many times weights fall scripturally in a gray area.
There may be nothing wrong with a runner training in ankle
weights, but if he is going to run a successful race he must lay
aside the weights. Likewise if we are going to live successful
Christian lives, meet our goal of being changed into the image
of Christ, the weights must come off. 2)
The sin - The sin is
what I wish to talk about tonight.
Notice the scripture did not say the sins but the sin.
There is a sin that seems to catch us.
Tonight I would like to talk briefly about that sin.
The sin that besets each of us is also individualized. But if we will each evaluate our sin we may
find a common cause. JAMES
1:13-15 Here James is saying that the root cause of sin is lust.
The word lust itself means an excessive or a consuming desire, a strong craving.. Now we can lust after Godly things like spiritual
knowledge and gifts. This
is normally considered a strong desire.
The lust that James is speaking of here is a consuming
desire or craving for that which is forbidden. This type of lust
is listed as a sin in I
PETER 4;3-4. I
PETER 4;3-4 Before we got saved we spent most of our time gratifying the
lust of the flesh, participating in wickedness and evil. It is no surprise that we acted that way.
Before we get saved according to John 8:44, the devil is
our father and we carry out the lust of our father.
In doing so we have built up strong craving in our flesh
and now as Christian we must war against those cravings. James
1:13-15 James says that this
excessive craving for that which is forbidden is the root cause
of man's sin. He reminds
us that God does not tempt man to sin.
It is our own lust that pulls us towards sin.
The devil uses those cravings that we build up as unsaved
people to entice us into sinning.
When we yield to those cravings then we commit sin which
brings forth death; death of our witness, a lack of growth, and
if we continue in sin it will bring spiritual death followed by
eternal death. (I JOHN SCRIPTURAL EXAMPLES: DAVID
- II SAMUEL 11:1-6 1. David should have been at war with his troops. 2. The lust of his eyes got him in trouble. He
had enough wives and concubines.
But he saw this woman and he wanted her.
When he found out that she was married that should have
stopped him. 3. Then the lust of the flesh kicked in and he
sent her and slept with her. 4. Then pride stuck it's wicked head up. David was the king. He did not want the people to know of his sin
so he tried everything to cover it up.
He finally resulted to murdering Uriah. vs.
26 12:1 - It was a long time between the time when David sinned and
the time when he repented. In
Ps. 32:3-4 David talks about what happened
to him in that time period. (He
was under heavy conviction, and had a painful disease that made
him sexually impotent). His
lust led to sin and his sin to the death of his witness as king,
the death of the child. vs 12:10-14. GEHAZI
- II KINGS Though
when we talk about lust we normally think only sexually, lust
can be an all consuming desire for anything.
It is lusting after those things that we do not have that
lead us to sin. The lust for money will lead a man to steal
or sale drugs. It will
lead a personal to sale their body.
It will lead to jail and death.
But it is hard to see the end of sin when we are in the
lust state. For the lust
is all consuming. We can
see nothing but the desire. The
strong, seemingly uncontrollable desire entices us to sin. HEBREWS
12:1-2 Whatever the sin that so easily besets you is, check to see
if it's root is not lust and in fact your sin may simply be lust. Whatever your sin is we are told to put it aside
and look to Jesus. How
can we put it aside. I COR II COR. GAL |