Our Sin Problem

Have you ever had a dinner reservation at your favorite restaurant, or maybe a favorite meal at your Grandmother’s home, where you would be so excited about awesomeness of the food you would partake of, that you would not eat for the entire day leading up to it?

When tempted to grab a snack, you decide not to because you want to be able to ingest (and enjoy) every delicious bite of food that awaits you! The anticipation of that meal continues to increase as the day goes on until you sit down to eat.

Finally that time comes!!! You eat the food and it is as amazing, maybe even better, than you imagined! It’s not only because you are so hungry from avoiding food all day; but it’s just as you thought it would be - So Perfectly Prepared!

As you’re enjoying your meal, you look to your left and see someone else picking at his or her food. Instead of waiting to enjoy this glorious meal, they ate snacks and meals throughout the day and they’re really just not that hungry. It is as though they settled for lesser things and simply don’t have the capacity to enjoy what is in front of them.

I think that’s how many of us treat sin.

We settle for temporary pleasures now, which leave us unfulfilled instead of focusing on the Greater Glory that awaits us!

Here’s what I mean: Let’s look at the current state of our culture.  TV, movies, books, and society teach us that we should have sex before we are married to make sure we are “sexually compatible” or that is perfectly okay to have a bunch of partners. In fact, if we don’t then something is wrong with us.  Don’t believe me? Just look at the harsh criticisms that outspoken Christian athletes Tim Tebow or Lolo Jones get about savings themselves for marriage as God intended. 

The idea that it’s okay to give up what God intended for your spouse, to satisfy a temporary pleasure is perpetuated all around us.

Or how about men and women who indulge in pornography regularly because it is a quick and easy way to satisfy the flesh, and is easily hidden. Statistically, 2 out of every 3 men reading this, and 1 out of every 2 women reading this struggle with pornography. By the way, that statistic is no different in the church than it is in the world…

Don’t believe me? Read this

Or how about money? Why are so many people upset when the church talks about money? We hold on to it so tightly because we earned it! It’s ours and we want to decide how it’s used, Right? 

So when the church gives you the opportunity to give, rather than doing so joyfully, many of us clutch our wallets tighter and think about what we could buy now instead of give to the church. Maybe it’s a car, new wardrobe, a vacation, or something else.   Regardless of what it is, it’s temporary and is incomparable to furthering God’s Kingdom, which is eternal.

The truth is, our money is not actually ours, and it all belongs to God. It’s in that moment of us clinging to our money that we choose to love money more than we love God.

“The earth is the LORD's, and everything in it, the world, and all who live in it” Psalm 24:1

You see it’s not that we love money, pornography, or sin too much, it’s that we don’t love Jesus enough.

We have to bring ourselves to a place where we love Jesus so much that we are willing to let go of the sin that we continue to clutch on to.  We have to have a shift in our minds to think eternally, knowing that something greater awaits us!

The amazing thing is that when we decide to eat a snack (sin), God’s grace is there for us in abundance because Jesus Christ died for it!  If we truly understand that we were bought with a price, and that it cost God something – His own Son, then our nature will strive to avoid sin and grow in our relationship with Him!

My intent in writing this is not to tell you how to live morally. It’s to point you to Jesus with a greater love and purpose! He will deal with your (and my own) morality!  I want to encourage you just like Paul encouraged the church at Corinth to move past their sin and think eternally:

“For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen, since what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal.”

2 Corinthians 4:17-18

Consider the greater glory that awaits us one day when we are joined with King Jesus in Heaven. A new heaven and a new earth! No more death, crying, pain, or sin! Fellowship with God Himself!

Need some encouragement? Cling to this!

“Then I saw “a new heaven and a new earth,” for the first heaven and the first earth had passed away, and there was no longer any sea.  I saw the Holy City, the new Jerusalem, coming down out of heaven from God, prepared as a bride beautifully dressed for her husband. And I heard a loud voice from the throne saying, “Look! God’s dwelling place is now among the people, and he will dwell with them. They will be his people, and God himself will be with them and be their God. ‘He will wipe every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death’ or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.”” Revelation 21:1-6