Tuesday, October 30, 2007
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A while back my wife took me to a county fair with her where I experienced another new world. It was a 4x4 pull, where people in all kinds of four-wheel drive vehicles were competing. The challenge: pulling this massive sledge as far as possible. The first event featured standard, unmodified pickup trucks. All the drivers were male, except one. The engines roared for about an hour as one truck after another revved, pulled, and finally slowed down until it could go no further. Do you want to guess who won the 4x4 pull? Uh-huh, the little blonde-haired girl in the blue pickup truck. And I think I know why she beat everybody. She studied every competitor ahead of her; especially that sandy spot in the arena where most of them seemed to bog down. And she skillfully maneuvered around that soft spot and went the farthest, at least partly because she avoided what had sunk others.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Finishing Without Sinking."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Corinthians 10:5 and following, where Paul looks back at some ancient believers who got off to a great start, but bogged down before the end of their race. This is much more than a history lesson; this is an important warning for you and me. It establishes the wonderful relationship they had with the Lord and a life of many mighty spiritual experiences. A lot like us. Then...
"Nevertheless, God was not pleased with most of them; their bodies were scattered over the desert..." Why do we need to know this about them? He says, "These things occurred to them as an example to keep us from setting our hearts on evil things as they did." Like the surprise winner of the truck pull, we can win if we study what sank those who went ahead of us and avoid those holes. The Bible then turns its lens away from the believers of the past and aims it straight at you and me. It says, "These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings to us." So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don't fall. God's plea is that we learn by the falls of others; that we keep from "setting our hearts on evil things."
One of the most respected Bible teachers of the first half of the 20th century said that "it always seemed that one out of three loves was what it took to sink every spiritual casualty he had known." After a lot of years in the Lord's work I have to agree. If you hope to be of service to your Lord and you want to finish without sinking, see which one of these could sink you:
- The love of money - maybe you're vulnerable to temptation when it comes to money.
- The love of women - so many men have sunk before their race was over because they lowered their guard and they allowed Satan to exploit this weakness.
- The love of power - in some ways this is the most insidious because there's no "smoking gun" as there usually is with financial or sexual sin. But that's the sin that cost Lucifer heaven, and it's still wrecking lives today.
The Bible warns us not to overestimate our ability to resist temptation. It tells us to live cautiously. We need to openly admit to God and to ourselves where we are vulnerable, because Satan has sure identified those areas. And the Bible tells us to always choose the road the leads away from the opportunity to sin, not just away from the sin, but from the opportunity to sin in that way. If you watch where others went down, you can drive your life around those pitfalls and you can finish a champion.