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The Sin Stops Here

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When I was a kid I heard a story that I will never forget. Even though it was a long time ago, I still remember where I was and what I was doing when my Sunday School teacher told this tale. A young boy named Jimmy loved to spend his lazy summer days fishing in a pond not far from his house. Every morning he would hop out of bed, pack a lunch, head into the woods to dig up worms for bait, then sprint to the waterside to catch as many fish as possible before it was time to come home for dinner.

Most days Jimmy would only be able to find a few worms, but one particularly hot day he hit the jackpot. Under an old stump he found the ground writhing with little creatures which he immediately grabbed and shoved in his pocket. As he headed towards the pond, he felt a stinging sensation on his leg, but he didn't take the time to worry about it. A few moments later, Jimmy pulled out a worm to bait his hook. Once again he felt a stinging sensation, this time on his hand, but in the excitement of the moment he paid no attention to it.

After an hour or so, Jimmy had caught a stringer full of fish and decided to go home. As he happily trotted down the road the local sheriff happened to be driving by, and he decided to congratulate Jimmy on his successful day. He was just about to say something when he noticed that Jimmy's hands were red and swollen.

"Jimmy, what kind of bait did you use today?"

"I found a whole nest of worms under an old stump, sir. See how big they are?"

The sheriff immediately realized what had happened. He grabbed Jimmy, threw him in the car and sped off to the hospital, but before he could arrive, Jimmy died.

It turned out that the big 'worms' that Jimmy had thought to be a lucky discovery were actually baby rattlesnakes that ended up being a deadly mistake. If Jimmy had stopped at the first sign of pain and noticed what was happening, his life could have been saved. But instead he ignored the warning signs because he didn't want his fun to end, and he paid for it with his life.

And so it is with sin.

Some of you may think that you can play around with sin and not get bit, but listen to what God says:

"...you can be sure that your sin will track you down" (Numbers 32:23)

If you refuse to deal with disobedience to God and His commands, you will eventually pay a price. There's no getting around it, because it is simply the way the universe is set up. You may get away with things for a while, which is exactly what Satan will use to turn off your God-given warning devices, and eventually the poison of sin will seep through the veins of your life, and it will be too late.

There is only one way to define sin, and that is by using the word death. The Bible teaches us that "the wages of sin is death..." (Romans 6:23). In other words, when you sin, something dies.

• When you lie, people's trust for you dies.
• When you gossip, your good reputation dies.
• When you lust, your relationship with the opposite sex dies.
• When you give into anger, your peace of mind dies.
• When you are selfish, your enjoyment of life dies.
• When you are proud, your love for others dies.

ANYTIME you sin in thought, word, or deed, something will die. This is why God warns us over and over and over again to avoid sin like the plague- because it is! Many of you are 'fishing' for happiness in life with poisonous snakes on your hook, and deep down you know that you are being bit. Decide today to empty your life of sinful choices, because as one author put it:

"If you tolerate sin in your life, that sin will not only take you farther than you wanted to go, it will keep you longer than you wanted to stay, and it will cost you more than you thought you'd pay..."

Head: What you need to know about this truth

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Heart: What you need to feel about this truth

There is a great King mentioned in the Bible who is called "a man after God's heart" - which is perhaps the greatest thing anyone could be called.His name was David, and even though he followed God the majority of his life, he had a season of sin that destroyed his life and family.It started with a lustful look at a woman, and ended with marital unfaithfulness, murder, betrayal, and heartbreak.If only David felt the same way about sin before it happened as he did afterwards!The same is true for us.We must go to God and come clean before it is too late.

Below is the prayer that David wrote after he realized his sinfulness. Take some time each day to pray this prayer, and I guarantee you will start to see the difference between the harmless worms and poisonous snakes in your life.

Psalm 51:1-17

Generous in love--God, give grace! Huge in mercy--wipe out my bad record.

Scrub away my guilt, soak out my sins in your laundry.

I know how bad I've been;my sins are staring me down.

You're the One I've violated, and you've seen it all, seen the full extent of my evil.

You have all the facts before you; whatever you decide about me is fair.

I've been out of step with you for a long time, in the wrong since before I was born.

What you're after is truth from the inside out. Enter me, then; conceive a new, true life.

Soak me in your laundry and I'll come out clean,scrub me and I'll have a snow-white life.

Tune me in to foot-tapping songs, set these once-broken bones to dancing.

Don't look too close for blemishes, give me a clean bill of health.

God, make a fresh start in me, shape a Genesis week from the chaos of my life.

Don't throw me out with the trash, or fail to breathe holiness in me.

Bring me back from gray exile, put a fresh wind in my sails!

Give me a job teaching rebels your ways so the lost can find their way home.

Commute my death sentence, God, my salvation God, and I'll sing anthems to your life-giving ways.

Unbutton my lips, dear God; I'll let loose with your praise.

Going through the motions doesn't please you, a flawless performance is nothing to you.

I learned God--worship when my pride was shattered.

Heart-shattered lives ready for love don't for a moment escape God's notice.

Hands: What you need to do about this truth

Oftentimes it is a lot easier to see the sin in others before we see it in ourselves. In fact, I think that what we hate most in others, we are most often guilty of ourselves. That's why Jesus said:

"And why worry about a speck in your friend's eye when you have a log in your own? How can you think of saying, `Friend, let me help you get rid of that speck in your eye,' when you can't see past the log in your own eye? Hypocrite! First get rid of the log from your own eye; then perhaps you will see well enough to deal with the speck in your friend's eye." (Luke 6:41-43)

It's time for all of us to take a hard look at our life to figure out where sin has dug in and threatens to kill the life that God wants us to have. In the next 24 hours, make a list of all the sins that drag you down the most, and also think about how you get into those sinful circumstances in the first place. After that, decide what specifically has to change if you are going to have victory over sin. You may need to stop going on-line in private places, you may need to end a relationship that's dragging your walk with Christ down, or you may need to stay away from certain places. These things may be difficult, but it is better than what will happen if you don't make changes!