This first was published on facebook.com/faithmattersblog.
Have you felt successful in your life of sin? I never thought I needed to learn this skill. This was maybe an unconventional approach to a sermon, but when my husband told me this was the best sermon our pastor has preached, I decided I need to spend a little extra time on this one. If it made that big of an impact on Todd, I want to make sure I didn’t miss something. When I asked Todd “why” it was his favorite, he answered because it showed how stupid we can be as humans.
Maybe it was the irony. So the first thing we need to do is determine what a sin is. We tend to think that sin is something we can control. (The first of our “stupid” assumptions.) Sin is anything not of God, His Will, or His command; something that goes against His word.
The first rule of winning at sin is – lean against something that can’t support you. We all know where this is going, right? What happens when you lean against something that can’t support you? You fall, yep, you’re exactly right. This sermon is based on the account of Ahaziah in 2 Kings 1:1-18, in case you want to follow along.
We are all enticed by the devil by our own desires. He knows what strings to pull to get us to buy into his lies. He temps us to fall away from God.
The second rule in succeeding at sin is – Once you crash, stay there, right where you fell. Ignore God. In Ahaziah’s case, he seeks counsel in someone other than God. Jon says that his sin was not in his falling, it was in what he did next. Staying where you have fallen is the mistake.
God sends Elijah to deliver a message to Ahaziah suggesting that he seek God’s counsel. Ahaziah instead sought the counsel of Baal-Zebub, the god of Ekron. But Ahaziah sent a captain and 50 men to see Elijah instead. They told the man of God to come down off the mountain. Elijah said “if I Am a man of God, may fire come down from heaven and consume you and your fifty men? Then fire fell from heaven and consumed the captain and his men.” 2 Kings 1:10
This happened 2 more times! Ahaziah was a very stubborn king! The third captain begged that Elijah not send fire down to kill he and his men. So Elijah goes with him to see Ahaziah and he tells him that because he had sent messengers to Baal-Zebub, he would never leave the bed he was in he would die there. And he did.
Rule #3 to succeed in sin is to let your pride rule! Ahaziah thinks he doesn’t need God. That’s where we make the same mistake sometimes. We can handle it, we don’t need God. We can’t come to God with our own agenda. We are not in control, he is.
We will fall. We are sinful by nature. It’s what we do after we fall that really matters.
It’s never the cut that kills, it’s the infection that comes from not taking care of the cut.
Don’t lean on stuff that can’t support you. Trust God.
“Submit yourselves, then, to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. Come near to God and he will come near to you.” James 4:7-8
We tend to think that by submitting to God that makes us weak. But by submitting, we are set free.
Confess your sins and then get up! Get out of the thing that causes you to sin!
In conclusion, Jon wanted to make sure we knew how to be a loser when it comes to sinning.
* Trust God, not yourself.
* Submit to God.
* Confess your sins.
* And then get up…don’t stay in what’s killing you.
By writing these blog posts, it makes me come home from church and study my notes, consult the Bible and Jon’s sermon notes. I know I wouldn’t get near as much out of the sermons if I didn’t take the time to do this. So, if you read my posts, know that I get as much out of writing it as any of you get out of reading it.
I hope that you take some time daily to talk to God. It can help you make sense of the daily grind of life.
In Faith,
Pam
Where God Leads 