Lies Women Believe About Sin, Part 2

Series: Lies Women Believe About Sin

Leslie Basham: Every choice we make has a consequence either for good or bad. It's Tuesday, April 30; and you're listening to Revive Our Hearts with Nancy Leigh DeMoss. Sin has no winners. No matter how harmless a sin may appear, there's only heartache waiting behind it. Today Nancy focuses on the effects of sin--those life-altering consequences that Satan would rather have you not know about. Let's join her now as she teaches us about the lies women believe about sin.

Nancy DeMoss: We're talking this week about lies that we believe about sin. And the first lie we're addressing is that--I can sin and get away with it. Now think how that works out in practical areas in everyday life. For example, and here's one that I can relate to a lot myself. We're stuffed at the end of a great Sunday lunch meal, but that second piece of lemon cake just looks so good we have to have it. We have no more room left for it, but we're going to eat it anyway. And what happens? I eat that piece of cake, but I'm not stopping to consider what may be the consequences. For example, in a few hours, I will probably feel bloated and sick to my stomach. That's a consequence.

I may not stop when I'm contemplating that piece of cake to consider that overeating can lead to things like heartburn and diabetes, stroke or heart failure. Now when I see that cake, I'm not seeing heart failure. I'm not seeing diabetes. I'm just seeing a really great looking piece of cake.

Maybe I'm not stopping to think about this. That lack of restraint in one area of my life makes me more vulnerable to lack of discipline in other areas of my life that may be even more major. And perhaps we're not stopping to think that the indulgence that we excuse in moderation--what's the big deal about a second piece of cake when you're already full--but that moderate indulgence may well produce in our children a harvest of extreme indulgence. So I see parents whose children are abusing their bodies with drugs or with illicit sex; and the parents say, "I never lived that way. I didn't make those kinds of choices."

Well, maybe we did make those kinds of choices. They weren't as obvious, they weren't as extreme; but we're reaping a harvest. Now why, when that piece of lemon cake is sitting in front of me, don't I stop to think about the consequences? What I'm really thinking is, Yes, I'm stuffed; but that piece looks so good and I can do it. I can handle it. I can get away with it.

And it happens in so many areas of our lives. Think about the way we entertain ourselves with reading material and movies and television programs and videos and music that reflects worldly values, sexual values, worldly philosophies--entertainment that legitimizes profanity and immodesty and immoral behavior.

We bring this stuff into our homes and think, It's not all that serious. I can get away with it. This isn't really affecting me. And we don't stop to think about what are going to be some of the inevitable consequences. For example, that in watching this thing, maybe even just a limited diet of it, that I am desensitizing my conscience and developing a tolerance for sin.

I found this out in my own life several years ago when I had been just using the television for noise, for companionship. I live alone, have for many years; and I would come home from work at the end of the day just exhausted and plop down on the sofa and turn on the television. But I found myself watching things that I didn't consider too bad, and yet I woke up one day and realized some of what I was bringing into my home and into my heart and into my mind. And I realized I had lost my sensitivity toward what was holy and pure and good and of value.

Another thing I found during that period of time is that by allowing these things, even in moderation, I was increasing my appetite for sin and finding stronger urges of my flesh in other areas. I thought, I can't control this. Well what was I doing? I was fueling my flesh with that kind of entertainment and I was diminishing the hunger for holiness. I didn't have the same kind of longing to know God and to study His Word and to be holy that I had at earlier times.

Maybe in relation to entertainment, we don't stop to think about this consequence. In allowing that which is unholy to come into our hearts, we're really erecting a barrier in our fellowship with God. And then one day, we wake up and we think, Where's God? We feel so far away. I don't feel connected to God anymore. I can't sense His presence in my life. What happened? One brick at a time--one choice at a time, I built a wall in my relationship with the Lord.

As it relates to that entertainment, we perhaps don't stop to think that we're programming our minds to think the world's way. And the way we think will ultimately determine the way that we live. We don't perhaps stop to think that we're increasing the likelihood that we will actually begin to act out the things that we are seeing and hearing. And we'll start to think, Well, it can't be so wrong to leave my husband, to lose my temper, to speak roughly or rudely to my mother when she calls at an inconvenient time. You know, we start to justify behavior based on what we've seen enacted out before us perhaps on the screen.

We make a choice, perhaps to hold a grudge against someone who's wronged us. And I found myself over and over again having somebody say something that hurt me and then just nursing the hurt. I mulled it in my mind over and over and over again. I begin to defend myself--mentally--thinking of ways that I could find to defend myself to the person who, perhaps, criticized me.

Don't go there. When I let my mind go there, I'm not stopping to think about the consequences. Then I'm going, sooner or later, if I let bitterness take root in my life, I'm going to destroy my capacity to think rationally. David says in Psalm 73, "When I nursed bitterness in my heart, I became like a brute beast before God." And that's what happens. When I nurse bitterness, I get to where I'm just totally irrational--not thinking straight. I don't stop to think that by nursing that wound, it's going to make me miserable. I don't think of how bitterness affects my body in ways like chronic tiredness, loss of energy. Any bitterness will just sap the life and the strength out of us.

Maybe I'm not stopping to think that by nursing this grudge, by holding on to this bitterness, that I'm not going to be able, according to Jesus, to experience the fullness of God's love and His forgiveness in my life. Perhaps I'm not stopping to think that bitterness is going to make me hard to live with, and it's going to cause people not to want to be my friend. And we can look at every area of sin.

A matter of getting too close--allowing ourselves to get too close to a kind, thoughtful, sensitive man at work. Now perhaps we ought to stop and ask, "Why, if he's so kind and thoughtful and sensitive, he's on his third marriage?" And we don't stop to think what he may be like in another setting, but we think he's meeting our needs. Or somebody we met in a chat room or somebody that we meet at church who's a godly counselor, but we're letting ourselves get our emotions fueled in ways that are not legitimate--not stopping to think about the long-term consequences in our lives, in our homes, in our relationships with our friends, in the next generation and on and on.

The writer of Proverbs was very concerned to warn his son about the consequences of sin. And what he really wanted to do, as a dad, was to protect his son, to spare him from a life of regret. That's what you want for your children, isn't it? You try to help your children see consequences for their behavior because you don't want them to get into a position in life where they're living with results that may be irreversible.

And so the writer of Proverbs exhorts his son, in chapter 5, to avoid every single form of sin as he would the plague and to make right choices now. Here's what he said--Proverbs chapter 5 beginning in verse 11. "At the end of your life you will groan when your flesh and your body are spent. You will say, 'How I hated discipline. How my heart spurned correction. I would not obey my teachers or listen to my instructors. I have come to the brink of utter ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.'" So what's his dad say? "Think now about what you will be experiencing at the end of your life if you do not make godly, holy choices now."

We have to keep reminding ourselves that Satan is a liar. And the things that God calls sin, Satan tells us are fun or safe, innocent, no big deal, just getting your needs met. The truth is that sin is dangerous, it is deadly; and it is destructive. The truth is that every choice I make today will have consequences. What I do with my time, what I do with my tongue, what I do with my natural temperament, with my emotions, every choice I make today will have consequences. The truth is, if we play with fire, what? We will get burned. And the truth according to James, chapter 1 is that sin, when it is full grown, gives birth to a baby. And what is the name of that baby? Death. If I let sin grow up in my heart, it will give birth to deadly consequences.

Leslie Basham:That's Nancy DeMoss reminding us that if we sow sin into our lives, we'll eventually reap regret. We'll come back to Nancy in a moment so she can lead us in a word of prayer. But first, why don't you think about someone you know who would benefit from hearing today's message. You can order them a copy of this week's series called Lies Women Believe about Sin. It comes on two cassettes for a suggested donation of $8.

You may also want to consider hosting a Bible study in your home and invite Nancy, via videotape, to teach on this topic. For a suggested donation of $15, you can get the video, Lies Women Believe and the Truth That Sets Them Free. The video comes with study questions to help you identify lies you may be tempted with and help you apply the Scripture to your life. For more information on the cassettes or video, just visit our Web site, ReviveOurHearts.com or give us a call at 1-800-569-5959.

You know, we love to hear how God is working in the lives of our listeners. If you have a testimony you'd like to share, why don't you write us and tell us about it.

Well, sin looks awfully good at times, but it can quickly turn deadly. Nancy will say more about that tomorrow. Hope you'll join us then. But now, let's return to Nancy as she closes us in prayer.

Nancy DeMoss: Father, help us to see sin in the light of Your holiness and to stop to consider the consequences of our choices Would you cause us to pause when we're getting ready this day to make a choice, to nurse a grudge, to indulge our flesh, to say something that we know is not pleasing to You, to spread a word of gossip, to be indulgent or lazy or critical or moody. In each of those moments, help us to stop and think, Is this the way I want my life to end up--a harvest that's multiplied from these choices? Remind us, O God, that Satan is a liar and that the truth is, every choice we make today will have consequences. And help us to live in light of that truth. We pray in Jesus' name. Amen. 

Revive Our Hearts with Nancy DeMoss is a ministry partnership of Life Action Ministries.

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