Sinning: Diet or Lap-band Surgery?
The other day my heart broke. It broke because I picked up a Christian magazine and read about a Christian music artist who has left his wife of 30 years and is openly living a gay lifestyle. In the magazine it was reported that this person, who you would know if I gave the name, and I paraphrase slightly, "pleaded with God for 30 years to take away the temptation to sin."
Rewind a few years.
This artist has been at the top of the music charts three different times. He has released more than ten Christian albums over the course of twenty years. One of his songs even received the Song of the Year award. He had it all going for him. In fact, I will honestly say that he led me to the Holy Place in worship on several occasions through his music. His superb song writing put you right in the music.
This person was so on fire for God. But sin...
Oh, but sin...
This person's story is all too common. Today, there are reports coming out all over the place of prominent "Christian" figures that were once on fire for God but have allowed sin to ruin just about every area of their life. It always starts slowly then before you know it, it's all gone. I, myself, remember dabbling in sin. I allowed a pinch here and dab there and before I knew it I was struggling to keep my head above the murky waters of a sin contaminated cesspool. What is worse, I had no idea that I was losing my ability to tread water. I thought I could stay afloat and reach the sides of pool for safety if ever the water got too overpowering.
But that all changed in an instant.
I learned the hard way that I could not control my sin. But I learned that lesson lying on my back at the bottom of the pool. I learned it looking up at a dismal sky through the green, mucky, algae-ridden, waters. I learned it choking on the putrid, worse-than-sewer, slop that would turn even a rat's stomach. Do you have that picture? That is sin.
And I tried so hard to clean up my act.
Oh, yes, acting. There was a whole lot of acting going on. I had almost everyone fooled; everyone but the One that needed fooling-God. But as you know I couldn't fool God. I at least had to try. Don't we all just need to try? I know that there are a lot of people out there trying to fool Him even today.
But maybe you have never been here. Maybe you cannot identify. Maybe you are one who grew up in church and you have no major blemish to your name. If that is you, I think you might have another problem-pride.
Maybe you need something a little closer to home. Maybe you need to try a new diet.
AHHHHHH! Don't say that word. That has to be the ultimate four-letter cuss word.
But trying not to sin in your own power is like dieting.
Have you ever tried a diet to lose or gain weight?
What was the outcome? Did you lose the weight? Do you look like you want to look?
For those who have dieted, and for those who will say that the outcome was positive, there will probably be a vast collection of memories that come to mind of all the past trials and errors-because let's face it, diets are difficult.
A diet to lose weight is a shock to the body. All of sudden, without warning, your body loses a third or maybe even a half of its daily intake of calories and fat. All the goodies that it is used to are now gone. What's left?-an empty feeling, sad thoughts for your poor belly, and some groaning and grumbling.
Your body goes into a starvation mode and the cravings only intensify. After a few days, or few weeks if you are extremely good, the diet is over. What's worse, instead of eating your regular, pre-diet meals, you are now over-indulging to make up for lost ground. Your eyes see the Twinkies, Snickers, and moon pies, and you just can't resist. Soon, every waitress at the local buffet knows you by first name.
You have failed. Oh, c'mon. It's OK to admit failure. We have all failed. The Bible says that we are all sinners (Rom. 3). But there is a difference between a sinner and one who sins. There is a difference between me and Kobe Bryant (Plays basketball for the LA Lakers). Mr. Bryant is a basketball player. I play basketball. Get it?
Whether we are referring to diets or sin, it is extremely hard to control the beast inside that wants more of what it knows it will not get if we continue to deprive it. Sin is a proverbial monster.
But why do we fail? Let's forget about dieting for a moment. (Who wants to think about that anyway?)
Why do we fail to stop sinning?
Why do we plead with God and blame Him when He doesn't take away the desires for the sin? Why did God not take away the musician's desire for a homosexual lifestyle when he supposedly entreated Him for three decades?
Let me ask you a question. Get inside this illustration for a moment. Imagine that you just bought one of the most state-of-the-art HDTV's. Let's say it's a 100" screen. When you get the TV home you install it and decide to pop in your favorite movie to see just how clear the picture really is. But, there is one slight problem. There is no picture. You try everything, but you just cannot get the TV to come on. You hear sound, but everything is dark on the screen. After a few annoying hours with no success, you decide to do something about it. Then it hits you. You will call up the CEO of Sony and ask him how to handle the problem. Mr. Sony has all of his calls screened so your question never makes it to him. After several calls, you finally and angrily give in and ask his secretary for advice. You can feel her grinning in contempt over the phone. Then she lets out a belting laugh, and then tries to hold it in, as if to conceal her obvious perception that you are a moron. She entertains your question and quietly explains to you that there is a small red tab that protrudes out of the TV that must be pulled before you can see a picture. Then the funny part; you feel her grinning again. She responds by saying, "Sir, that information is found on the first page of your TV's manual. Furthermore, there should have been a giant label stuck to the front of your TV indicating that the tab must be pulled to see the picture."
What if there is some special prayer screener secretary in heaven? What if our silly prayers (and don't get me wrong silly prayer is better than no prayer) that have already been answered in God Word (The Bible: Our manual for life) never make it past the screener. What if the screener takes a look at your request and says, "Oops, that one was already answered in your manual. I can't let that one through." Now, while that may be humorous, we can take something from it. From God's Word we can understand that Jesus was Himself tempted in all points as we are tempted and He never gave in to sin. He remained perfect and sin-free. Jesus lived from the Word of God. That is why He quoted the Word of God every time He was tempted to sin (Matt.4; Luke 4). You don't read of Jesus praying to the Father to help Him make it through the trial. If anything, you see Him praying and fasting before any real sin knocks at His door. But during the ordeal you will never read of Him pleading with God to take it away. You see Him quote what He has hidden in His heart-God's Word!
We fail to stop sinning because we do not allow God to completely have us. We don't completely surrender. We want what we want when we want it. We are not willing to take on the life of God and leave behind a life of instant, pleasurable-for-a-season, sin. We don't really want to put in the effort. Sometimes, it is easy to sin-and not sinning can be difficult. When we are born again (saved) we are re-created anew. Our spirit is regenerated (Titus 3:5). Our spirit does not continue to sin, but our soul and body does. That is why you will find some Scriptures that say we sin and others that say we do not. It makes sense when you understand what part of man they are referring to. Quick theology lesson: Actually, quick anthropology lesson: Every person is comprised of three different and unique parts (I Thess. 5:23): a spirit -(aka: the heart. That part of us that has the ability to commune directly with God), a soul (our mind [or our intellect], our emotions [or the seat of our feelings] and our will [what we freely want to do or not do] and the body (the place of our five senses). When we are born again, the only part of us that is completely regenerated is the spirit man. That is why we must daily renew our mind, and daily die to the flesh. We do this through the power of the Holy Spirit in us and by reading and meditating on God's Word. Because the spirit of man is supposed to be superior-because that is the part of man that was made in God's image and likeness and because that is the part of us that connects directly to God-we are to be ruled by our spirit. The problem, however, is that often we are ruled by the flesh or our emotions. Friends, when you live like this, eventually your connection to God will die. To use a quick automobile analogy: if your alternator is not properly connected, you will eventually be running the car on the battery alone. Run the car on the battery long enough and soon your car won't start at all. It wasn't designed to run on just the battery. Conversely, we are not designed to live through just our body and soul. The spirit must be connected to God to run the rest of man effectively.
That is why diets don't work. That is why Sunday-only repentance doesn't work either.
Diets are temporary. Repentance is often the same. We fail because we try to cut off a few bad apples from the tree when the inside is rotten. It doesn't matter how much pruning you do if the tree is rotten on the inside. We must take care of the heart issue. We must change our desires. We must put Jesus Christ back on the throne of our heart and once again commune with God. We cannot do this by living like the world Monday-Saturday and come crawling and sobbing to God on Sunday morning at an impromptu altar call. Temporary diets won't work. Temporary repentance doesn't work either.
We need a lifestyle change.
Did you know that the English word, "Diet" actually goes all the way back to the Greek language-long before Latin? It is from the Greek word, "Diaita", which means "a way of life."
The word diet also has another interesting word found within it: DIE.
If we want to stop sinning there are two things that must happen. Yes, I could just sum it up by yelling out the word repent, but that wouldn't get much accomplished. We must have a lifestyle change and die to our self. These two are closer than conjoined twins.
A lifestyle change doesn't mean that you will stop eating candy for the next six weeks and then pick it up again. To change the lifestyle means we must stop it altogether. During this process we will need something to replace the problem. We will need to put something good in its place. Instead of eating candy for ten minutes, now you will eat a handful of carrots and do thirty push-ups. The same is true for sin. If we really want to stop sinning we must desire the things of God more than the temporary pleasure of sin. It starts by renewing a mind that is corrupted with sin-thoughts by reading God's Word, the Bible, daily!
If you really want freedom, you'll need to do some work! There will be a price to pay.
Choose to serve God, not your sin appetite. You always have a choice (Heb. 11:25).
No one can do it for you. There is no lap band surgery for sin.