Sins Ignored by Christians
February 12, 2012 Morning Service
Immanuel Baptist Church, Wagoner, OK
Rick Boyne
Message Point: Sin is sin; we must root it out of our lives.
Focus Passage: 2 Timothy 3:1-7
Supplemental Passage: "Be on guard, so that your hearts will not be weighted down with dissipation and drunkenness and the worries of life, and that day will not come on you suddenly like a trap; for it will come upon all those who dwell on the face of all the earth. (Luke 21:34-35 NASB)
Introduction: We’ve been speaking of Grace and how we are no longer under the law, but under Grace. Yet Paul asks, “Shall we continue to sin that grace may increase?” There are sins that Christians commit that they, many times, no longer consider to be sins. They are ignored. Yet small but unconfessed, unrepentant sins are still unconfessed, unrepentant sins, nonetheless. We must endeavor to keep our spirit sensitive to sin. When we lived in West Africa, we’d watch women reach into a fire and pull out a pot with their hands. Their fingers were no longer sensitive to the heat. They’d long ago ruined the nerve endings and built up calluses so that the heat no longer bothered them. We, too, have become desensitized and callused to sin. What once bothered us is now common place. What we once strived against, we now tolerate and even welcome. Shall we continue to sin that grace may increase? GOD FORBID!
I. Gossip
a. being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, greed, evil; full of envy, murder, strife, deceit, malice; they are gossips, slanderers, haters of God, insolent, arrogant, boastful, inventors of evil, disobedient to parents, without understanding, untrustworthy, unloving, unmerciful; (Romans 1:29-31 NASB)
b. For I am afraid that perhaps when I come I may find you to be not what I wish and may be found by you to be not what you wish; that perhaps there will be strife, jealousy, angry tempers, disputes, slanders, gossip, arrogance, disturbances; (2 Corinthians 12:20 NASB)
II. Gluttony
a. Merriam-Webster defines gluttony as “the excessive consumption of food”
b. Do not be with heavy drinkers of wine, Or with gluttonous eaters of meat; For the heavy drinker and the glutton will come to poverty, And drowsiness will clothe one with rags. (Proverbs 23:20-21 NASB)
III. Greed
a. Money
i. But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction. For the love of money is a root of all sorts of evil, and some by longing for it have wandered away from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. (1 Timothy 6:9-10 NASB)
ii. As they had their pasture, they became satisfied, And being satisfied, their heart became proud; Therefore they forgot Me. (Hosea 13:6 NASB)
b. Power
i. saying: "The scribes and the Pharisees have seated themselves in the chair of Moses; therefore all that they tell you, do and observe, but do not do according to their deeds; for they say things and do not do them. "They tie up heavy burdens and lay them on men's shoulders, but they themselves are unwilling to move them with so much as a finger. "But they do all their deeds to be noticed by men; for they broaden their phylacteries and lengthen the tassels of their garments. "They love the place of honor at banquets and the chief seats in the synagogues, and respectful greetings in the market places, and being called Rabbi by men. (Matthew 23:2-7 NASB)
IV. Grumbling
a. Do all things without grumbling or disputing; so that you will prove yourselves to be blameless and innocent, children of God above reproach in the midst of a crooked and perverse generation, among whom you appear as lights in the world, (Philippians 2:14-15 NASB)
b. Be glad in the LORD, you righteous ones, And give thanks to His holy name. (Psalms 97:12 NASB)
V. Gambling
a. And my God will supply all your needs according to His riches in glory in Christ Jesus. (Philippians 4:19 NASB)
b. Instruct those who are rich in this present world not to be conceited or to fix their hope on the uncertainty of riches, but on God, who richly supplies us with all things to enjoy. Instruct them to do good, to be rich in good works, to be generous and ready to share, storing up for themselves the treasure of a good foundation for the future, so that they may take hold of that which is life indeed. (1 Timothy 6:17-19 NASB)
c. If you spent $50 a month on the lottery you would lose $12,000 over 20 years…
If you invested $50 a month over 20 years you would have over $34,365.00
d. Statistics show that upwards of 8% of those who say they gambled the first time just for fun, became compulsive gamblers.
Of those 8%, 22% will get divorced/85% will steal from employer to pay debts/79% will say they wish they were dead/17% will attempt suicide.
Invitation:
