This week we are looking at “Making every effort” born out of a fear of God, sown in faith, the Holy Spirit will then “enable” us to overcome the things in our life that would hinder a relationship with Him. We are also going to look at how “making every effort” also entails us to do the work that God has called us to do.
In dealing with “making every effort” to overcome the sin issues in our lives, I would like to look to the story of Joseph. There are things that happen behind the scenes that lead to Joseph being sold into slavery. Jacob sins by showing favoritism to Joseph, Joseph sins naively, or intentionally, by showing off that favoritism, both from his father and from his dreams. Now he finds himself betrayed by his brothers, and in servitude to Potiphar. We are going to be dealing with how he has dealt with the temptation to sin.
Genesis 39:6-16, So he left everything he owned in Joseph’s charge; and with him there he did not concern himself with anything except the food which he ate. Now Joseph was handsome in form and appearance. It came about after these events that his master’s wife looked with desire at Joseph, and she said, “Lie with me.” But he refused and said to his master’s wife, “Behold, with me here, my master does not concern himself with anything in the house, and he has put all that he owns in my charge. There is no one greater in this house than I, and he has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do this great evil and sin against God?” As she spoke to Joseph day after day, he did not listen to her to lie beside her or be with her. Now it happened one day that he went into the house to do his work, and none of the men of the household was there inside. She caught him by his garment, saying, “Lie with me!” And he left his garment in her hand and fled, and went outside.
We look to Joseph in this passage as a great hero, and he is. I imagine as the wife of a powerful official, she would have been an incredible looker. I can already hear this as a “pump up” sermon. I grew up in a Pentecostal church, could you imagine how great of an illustration this would be? THAT JOSEPH, DID HE STAY THERE? NO! HE FLED! WHEN THAT TEMPTATION IS ENTICING YOU! YOU RUN! RUN LIKE JOSEPH! LEAVE YOUR SHIRT BEHIND, DON’T YOU WAIT JUST RUN!! I agree. I mean at the bare roots, the basic principal is indeed to flee temptation. Could we look at our lives though and if an opportunity to partake in something like that presented itself could we flee? Would we even want to flee?
Overcoming Sin
These are the types of sin that we focus on all the time. It’s that kind of sin that people can see in tangible ways. Things like stealing, pornography, acting out on our lusts, lying, drunkenness, adultery, gossip, acting out our anger.
This is what we focus on all the time. I believe that we often feel the most guilty of these sins, and the reason why is because it is well, obvious. I have a feeling that this is a powerful tool of the enemy. I think there is a couple of ways the enemy uses this highly to their advantage.
1. Keep you so focused on these sins, so focused on the guilt that comes in the acting out of these things that you never move beyond them.
2. Have you so focused on these sins that you never deal with the root. I think this is where the Pharisees were. They had their outer appearances tailored so well, that they never dealt with their pride or heart issues. They had everyone around them feeling so terrible about the way they were acting that people could never come to a hope that God would forgive them in presenting themselves at the temple, which was the whole point of the temple! Think to the story of the tax collector and the Pharisee.
There is also the “root” of the problem. Where sin begins, that is in our hearts. This I would like to think of in terms of our motives, this deals with things like pride, envy, lust (in thought form), anger, jealousy, fear (of man), false humility (not ever doing anything and suppressing our gifts because we constantly think our pride will get in the way), and in general our thought patterns. I believe this is what it is talking about in James.
James 1:12-15, “Blessed is a man who perseveres under trial; for once he has been approved, he will receive the crown of life which the Lord has promised to those who love Him. Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am being tempted by God’; for God cannot be tempted by evil, and He Himself does not tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by his own lust. Then when lust has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and when sin is accomplished, it brings forth death.”
James talks about how this is the beginning of sin. This is also something that we sometimes let ourselves get away with a whole lot because it isn’t vocalized.
There a couple of ways the enemy uses this as another powerful lie in our lives:
1. It’s only in my deepest mind. I am not carrying out the sin, as long as I don’t act out these thoughts I’m ok.
2. My motives don’t really hurt anyone, as long as I do the right thing, who cares if my heart is in it?
3. No one really cares whether or not I think this way.
How to overcome this:
1. Spend deeper time in fellowship with God. Earnestly seek for your mind, heart and will to be transformed. Think of a song that we sing,
“So, take my heart and form it
Take my mind, transform it
Take my will, conform it
To Yours, to Yours, oh Lord”
2. Asking for that way of escape when temptation to sin begins to creep into your mind, 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you but such as is common to man; and God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will provide the way of escape also, so that you will be able to endure it.” Being completely honest when asking for a means of escape, “God I want to sin right now. If I don’t see the way out clearly I will let this overtake me.”
3. When a way of escape presents itself, TAKE IT! Let’s be honest, how many times are we presented with a means of overcoming these “obvious sins” and we don’t take it.
4. Watch for your warning signs your triggers. I had to learn this with overcoming smoking. There were places and different things that I did when I would smoke, and I had to learn to avoid them, until such a time that I could participate without craving a cigarette. Remember too, just because I craved cigarettes, did not mean that I had started smoking again. In the same way, temptation does not mean you are sinning, it depends upon how you deal with those thoughts, do you dwell on them, or flee?
5. In a very related step, cut it off before it begins! That starts by being careful of what you fill yourself with. How many times have you watched movies by yourselves or with friends and laughed, and enjoyed the movies and thought what an incredible movie it was, and then watched it with your parents? Or with other people who are careful with what the watch? Then, every swear, every joke, every nudity scene you found yourself cringing? If you deal with sexual temptation, do you think watching movies that glorify nudity, loose morals will help you overcome sexual temptation? I recall in one of my classes we watched an episode of Friends. Now I will admit to you there are funny things on there, it was a show I used to watch a lot. But watching it in this class, with a prof that I highly respected, I felt ashamed. The jokes and sight gags that were used, all of a sudden gave off nervous laughter. Why is that? Surely out of anyone that would be able to be at a place in his walk with God where this should be a non-issue, our prof, would be at that place, yet he would not fill his mind with those things.
6. FLEE!!
1 Corinthians 6:18, “Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body.”
1 Timothy 6:11, “But flee from these things, you man of God, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, perseverance and gentleness.”
2 Timothy 2:22, “Now flee from youthful lusts and pursue righteousness, faith, love and peace, with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart.”
7. Don’t spend time focusing on these “outer sin” so much. I think the enemy loves to use this because we fail to deal with heart matters, and the roots of the sin because we focus so much on the externals. The more we foster our relationship with God, the more these things fail to have its pull that it once did.
8. Ask God to help you with your motives. When you feel the rising surge within your heart to lash out, or begin to incline itself towards evil, ask God in an honest way to help you overcome it. So much in the bible is talked about the heart and our motives. Ask God to help keep your motives clean.
Now I am going to be talking about “making every effort” in doing the work of God. For that lets take a brief look at Nehemiah. But before we do, I have yet another video clip to poke fun of our attitudes sometimes.
Nehemiah was called to a work. Nehemiah met with some of his kinsmen from Judah and asks them about the situation going on in Israel. Nehemiah is chapter 1:3 is told that, “The remnant there in the province who survived the captivity are in great distress and reproach, and the wall of Jerusalem is broken down and its gates are burned with fire.”
Nehemiah’s reaction? Verse 4, “When I heard these words, I sat down and wept and mourned for days; and I was fasting and praying before the God of heaven.” Nehemiah spent deep time with God, reminding God of what He had promised to Israel through their forefathers. Nehemiah is then able to being a rebuilding project through the king.
As you begin to read through Nehemiah, you watch the opposition Israel faced by a seemingly formidable enemy. Yet Nehemiah never quits. Instead he takes steps to protect the builders, protect the project that God had given to them to do, and continues on. Chapter 4 talks about the enemy pressing in really hard and trying to “frustrate their plans” and so they begin to pray and cry out to God. God responds by coming to their aid and (4:15), “God had frustrated their plan, then all of us returned to the wall, each one to his work.”
Not only that but you read about the conflicts within the congregation of Israel themselves, as the rich took advantage of the poor. Nehemiah’s response? He turns to the law and shows them their sin. They repent and continue on their work.
Their enemies continue to press in and because a physical attack did not work, they appeal to the lure of power, and deception about Nehemiah’s character. Nehemiah’s response? He continually gives it up to God, God in turn gives him discernment, and he sees through all their plots which fail miserably.
End result? God fights for them, He gives them discernment, and He also brings revival to the land. Nehemiah made every effort he could to preserver through intense opposition.
“Every effort” when it comes to sin:
1. Read Galatians 5:16-6:10. Dwell on them. Pray before you read it and after you read it.
2. Go into deep conversation with God and ask Him to reveal to you that which your heart naturally inclines towards and ask Him to change your heart.
3. Ask God what are those things that you fill your heart with that hinders your relationship with Him, and work towards fixing it. I am not saying that you throw away everything that is not labeled “Christian” or never go to another movie, unless of course He has asked you to do that. But as you watch T.V. and listen to your music, try to discern what God would tell you.
“Every effort” when it comes to God’s work:
1. First of all, find out what it is that God would have you do. Pray to God to give you His heart in your situation. Is it that you need to step out for Him more in your classroom? Do you need to be witnessing to your co-workers more? Is it getting involved with a ministry?
2. Read Nehemiah and watch closely his responses to opposition.
3. Expect opposition to come from outside forces and within. Take steps to protect yourself, a “trawl in one hand, and your sword by the other”, Nehemiah 4:9-23.
4. Pray, pray, pray, God blessed the efforts of Israel and Nehemiah because they feared God, Nehemiah 5:9, 15.
Drake says:
It is nice to see that I am not the only one still blogging out here in the great vast of the world wide web. Though I must say that I have not started posting my full length sermons. I must add that I have been quite intrigued by this section on the fear of God that you have been touching on. I have quite enjoying all this information. I have not been on in a few weeks as I have had some computer issues and reformatting of this computer. So I have some catching up to do… lots of reading ahead of me I guess. I hope things are going well on your end and I will be seeing you in September. It should be a great year and grand old time.
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