Wednesday, May 28, 2014
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Our son-in-law can only sit still for so long. When we lived back East, there was this one time when he was visiting us that he reached his limit regarding that. So he grabbed his basketball and went out to the hoop in our back yard. Now, it was a pretty primitive basketball setup. It was just several boards nailed to a tree at the back of our driveway. So, you know, very homemade, wooden backboard.
He was working up a sweat out there, shooting and dribbling. And suddenly he noticed a big bee buzzing around his head. He realized that it had come from around the hoop and the backboard. Upon closer inspection, he saw a beehive there. Not too much closer, he just looked and there it was.
Apparently, those bees were not happy about that basketball causing repeated hive-quakes, or whatever you call it. So they began to respond. My son-in-law told me what he had to do. He didn't try to ignore the bees and keep playing his game. No! He didn't try to kill the bees. He ran into the house as fast as he could. He really was smart and ran into the house. He demonstrated his intelligence.
I'm Ron Hutchcraft and I want to have A Word With You today about "Knowing When It's Time To Run."
Our word for today from the Word of God comes from 2 Timothy 2:22. It says, "Flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace." Notice, "flee the evil desires of youth." Now, lots of people have ended up in a sexual sin that they thought they would never commit. Very few people of character plan to fall into adultery or sexual sin or premarital sex or going farther than their standards and God's standards would allow them.
I once received a letter from a young listener, and she poured out her heart in it. I had begun a program talking about some of the statistics about how many young people have had pre-marital sex. And she said, "Until a month ago, I never dreamed I'd be one of those statistics." She went on to talk about how she had made a series of choices that brought her into a situation where she was vulnerable, where there was an opportunity to sin. She never wanted to, she never planned to, but she did. She was really hurting. It was a heartbreaking letter.
Now, this verse addresses how to avoid that. "Flee evil desires of youth." There are three things you can do with sexual temptation. One, you can flirt with it. That would be like if our son-in-law got on a ladder and inspected that beehive; trying to see how close he could get to it without getting stung. That would be dumb. And it's dumb when you try to do that with sexual temptation. The Bible calls sexual desire "fire in your lap." That's pretty explicit language to describe how you're only going to get burned if you flirt with it.
The second thing you can do is you can fight sexual temptation. Well, that would be like our son-in-law staying out there still shooting his baskets, just trying to swat or kill every bee. Sexual desire will almost always ultimately win unless you get away from it. It's overpowering stuff if you allow yourself to be in a situation where you can dwell on it, where you can act on it, or be around it for very long.
The third thing is what the Bible says to do. "Flee from it." Be realistic. Don't underestimate sexual temptation. Don't underestimate your ability to fall. Don't get anywhere close to it. You're never going to win morally unless you get as far from sexual temptation as possible. That girl in that letter spoke for millions who have had sex before marriage or outside their marriage vows. She said it just isn't worth it.
So get rid of any input that feeds your lust; a movie channel, a website, music, a magazine, humor, certain things on television. And avoid settings where you're alone with someone of the opposite sex for any extended time. Change what you're doing at the very first thought of anything wrong.
Hey, our son-in-law was smart. He knew you don't flirt with or you don't even fight what can really sting you. He ran! That's how you win against temptation. Believe me, too many people have already been stung.