May 12, 2021 – Click here to listen
I have a young friend and fishing buddy who appears to have everything going for him. He is handsome and has a drop dead gorgeous wife and absolutely beautiful children. God has blessed this young man with a strong work ethic and he’s smart.
Even though he’s just 32 years old his business is growing like a weed and he’s earning big money which he spends on all the niceties and material things of life.
So he came over to my house to see me the other day and we were standing on my dock when my next door neighbor’s beautiful daughter comes walking out in a tiny little bikini. She is probably no older than 18 but looks quite stunning for her age. When she came out and plopped down in a beach lounge chair, he looked at me with a devilish smile and said, “That my friend is my biggest weakness.”
I’ve been trying to get this kid to a Bible study class with me and he keeps telling me he will come but always has to work or has some other excuse. I told him that temptation is a big part of life and one of Satan’s most used tools that began in the Garden of Eden. Temptation is not the problem as we will all be tempted; the problem is succumbing to it.
Jesus was tempted and successfully resisted but the rest of us at times fall for it. Everyone has weaknesses and Satan know them well. So does God and the Bible tells us that He always provides a way to escape. We are told to look for it and TAKE it. The Bible puts the ramifications of it into black and white for us and compares resisting it to escaping Satan’s snare and a grisly death – Psalm 124:7 – Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken, and we are escaped.
I told my friend that I’ve seen countless friends lose everything beginning with their wife and family due to their lust. I’ve often wondered while studying the Old Testament at the incredibly harsh treatment God has given down through the ages to those who disobey His commands. While the world gives sin a wink and a nod, He takes sin seriously and the wages of it is death.
Jesus was born and the New Testament is filled with grace and the hope of forgiveness and redemption due to what He did on the cross; however no one who has a brain can read the Bible in its entirety and come away thinking they are going to get some free ride regarding sin if we do not turn from it after finding Jesus.
Sooner or later comes a day of reckoning for sin to include Christians and for sure some pastors. I told my friend that he needs to be down on his knees asking God to remove the scales from his eyes so he can see how much God blessings in his life and to give him a forecast as to what it will be like to lose it and live apart from his beautiful family that he loves and be all alone living in disgrace.
My prayer for him today is that he takes his route of escape because it is dead certain that he will be tempted again and again especially as his fortune increases.
1 Cor. 10:13
No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it.