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Deep in the African jungle, there was a hunter named Perembe. And he was on the biggest hunt of his life. He was on the hunt for Chewy the leopard. And he knew if he could get Chewy the leopard, then he would be able to sell that skin for a great amount of money. And so he was taking this very seriously, but it was a deadly hunt. And so he had a spear in one hand, he had a bow in the other hand, and he had his his arrows on his back. And as he is going through the tall grass, there's multiple animals that he thought, oh, maybe it would be the leopard. But he passed it up because he knew that it wasn't chewy quite yet. Off in the distance, he saw that there was some spots going right through the tall grass off in the distance. And he knew this was it. This was his chance. And Chewy the leopard, he went up on this big rock to bask in the sun. And so he went behind this Buyu tree to hide. He grabbed one of his arrows, pulled it back on his bow, breathed in, breathed out, and released. And right when he released, he went right for that leopard with his spear to finish it off. And he smiled because his arrow flew true. It killed the leopard in one shot. And so now he was happy. He was going to skin this leopard, put it on his back, go back to his village. And he knew that everybody would be impressed. And then, as he was skinning the leopard, he heard something right behind him. The hair on the back of his neck stood up. His heart was beating fast. He was wondering, could this be another leopard? Could this be another animal that's going to come after me? And so he clenched his fist over that spear, and he turned around as fast as he could. But there was nothing there. He looked around, and he didn't see another wild animal. He checked down, and he looked right at his feet. There was a little leopard cub. It had the kindest little eyes looking up at him. It was licking his paw. It was so harmless. And he just couldn't help but giggle. And he wanted to bring this little leopard cub home as a pet. And he thought, this is going to be amazing. Not only am I going to come back with one leopard, but I'm going to get two leopards. Everyone's going to be really impressed. And so he took that leopard skin on his back, he picked up that little leopard cub, and he went back to his village. And as he was walking back to his village, There were people that wanted to see if he was successful. And they came to him, and they were cheering him on, saying, yeah, Pirembi, way to go, way to go. Little kids were coming up to him, and they saw the little leopard. And they were like, oh, so cute. Let's play with it. And they loved this little leopard cub. And even the chief of the village came walking towards Pirembi. And Pirembi thought, wow, this is going to be great. Even the chief is going to congratulate me on this hunt. But then, as the chief started approaching even more He took out his knife, and he came running right at Parambi. And Parambi was like, what is going on? He turned, and he didn't know what to do. But then he realized that the chief was going after his leopard. He said, stop. What are you doing? Can't you see? It's a little leopard cub. It's not going to hurt anybody. I'm going to raise it as my pet. I'm going to feed it nothing but porridge. And it's going to be harmless. And that chief looked at Parambi, and he said, Parambi, Listen to wisdom. Little leopards become big leopards, and big leopards kill. You must deal with this leopard before it's too late. Crenby was like, ah, what do you know? You just don't even want me to have this little leopard cub, and it's not going to hurt anybody. And so as months went by, he fed it nothing but porridge. He raised it as his pet. And soon enough, after one year had passed, it was half grown. The kids were playing with it. It was harmless. It still had those kind little eyes. The kids would tug on its ears, pull on its tail, and they would have fun playing with this leopard. But one day, the chief walked by the hut and saw this half-grown leopard. He said, Perembe, you have not killed this leopard yet. Listen to wisdom. Little leopards become big leopards, and big leopards kill. Kill this leopard before it's too late. But Parambi, again, he didn't heed the chief's wisdom. He continued to feed it porridge. It continued to grow. Its teeth grew sharper. Its claws grew longer. And its muscles grew even stronger. After two years, this leopard was fully grown. When it would walk by people, you could see the muscles rippling beneath its fur. It was a huge leopard. But it still had those kind eyes. It still had fun playing with the children. It still was harmless, because Perembe had fed it nothing but porridge. And then one day, when there were little kids playing on the outskirts of the village, Chewy was playing along with them, like he normally did. But one of the boys fell down and scraped his knee. And there was a little trickle of blood that was trickling down his leg. And Chewy went over to go help this little boy, as he normally would, and he licked the blood right off of his leg. And right as Chewy tasted that blood, something changed within him. His eyes changed, he snarled, he lifted his paw, and he knocked the kid over and bolted right towards the village. He came right to Parambi's hut, and was standing right in front of the doorway. Parambi was just cooking a meal. He was really hungry. He was ready to eat. He saw Chewy out of the corner of his eye. And he was excited to see him. It was his pet. But then he looked into his eyes, and he realized something had changed. This leopard that was once his little leopard cub that he raised as his pet with those kind eyes, it completely changed. Those eyes wanted to kill. And he saw that he had his hunting knife right between him and the doorway, and this was his only chance that he would have. He reached for his knife, but before he could grab his knife, it was too late. That leopard pounced on Perembe and killed. When there was a word of this going throughout the village, everybody was screaming. There was chaos. They're saying, this leopard killed once. It might kill again. The chief heard this. He was sitting in his hut, and he just shook his head, looked down, and he said, Parambi, why didn't you listen? Little leopards become big leopards, and big leopards kill. And this leopard just killed. Now I know what I must do. And that chief got out of his hut. He grabbed his knife and his spear. He met Chewy the leopard. And he did what he wanted to do long ago. And he killed that leopard. Now, if you understand the title of this message and are listening to the story, you guys can probably guess what the moral is for that story. The fact that little leopards become big leopards and big leopards kill. Little sins become big sins, and big sins will destroy your life. This morning, I want to focus on this truth, that you must take sin seriously. And you might be thinking, well, Pastor Andrew, I'm at Bible college. Like, I'm studying for and preparing for ministry. I want to be a pastor or a missionary. I don't have any of these egregious sins in my life. I look at, you know, other people out in the world who are doing all these things, and I don't do that. But the danger here is that we let so many little things buy in our life, sometimes we justify them and we don't actually deal with it. So this morning, we're gonna look at three ways that you need to take your sin seriously. Number one, you must take sin seriously by taking personal responsibility for your sin. If you guys could open your Bibles to James, chapter one, we're gonna look, starting at James, chapter one, verse 13. James, chapter one, starting in verse 13. It says, let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed." Now at the beginning of James chapter 1, it's talking about having joy in the midst of trials. James is writing to these Jewish believers who've been scattered abroad due to persecution. So they went through a lot of hardship, a lot of trials. There were people that were rich who were treating them unfairly. And that was the thrust of James' argument at the beginning of chapter 1. And then now when we come to this section, it shifts from saying trial to tempted or temptation. But it's the same Greek word. And it carries the idea of testing. When you are undergoing a trial, it's essentially a test. God allows those trials in our lives. And in James chapter 1, at the beginning, it talks about the fact that if you respond properly to those trials, then you can grow in maturity, in patience. And God uses that for good. Another kind of testing is temptation. You guys all know it. We all face temptation on a regular basis. And we have the opportunity either to obey God or disobey God, pass the test or fail the test. And in this sense, it's saying, let no one say when he is tempted, I am tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. You might be thinking, well, I don't blame God. I don't tell God that he's the one that's at fault. But oftentimes, you might think that way. You might say, it's God's fault that I'm bitter because he let this bad thing happen to me. It's God's fault that I'm envious because he's the one that gave my friend this opportunity that I wanted. It's God's fault that I'm getting into trouble all the time because he put me in a school with all these rules. It's God's fault that I complain so much because he has put these circumstances into my life. You might not say it, but oftentimes we can think those things. And instead of blaming God, we must understand that God doesn't tempt anybody. God is not the author of temptation. It starts with us. In fact, you can see after verse 14, if you look at verse 16, do not be deceived, my beloved brethren. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above. You can see that not only does God not tempt us, but he is the giver of good gifts. That is who God is. Temptation starts with us. Drawn away and enticed, those carry the idea of being trapped. So I want you to think of a little mouse who wants, all he wants is some cheese. He wants that cheese, he's sniffing it out, and he's sniffing everywhere for that cheese, and all of a sudden he sees cheese, but it's in a trap. He's not focused on the trap or the fact that it's danger. He wants that cheese. He knows that that's going to satisfy him. And so when he takes that cheese, takes that little bite, and it goes boom, and now he's dead, that's kind of the idea here. When we are tempted, there's always a promise of some sort of satisfaction or pleasure. You might think, oh yeah, that's going to make me feel good. That's going to be what truly satisfies. But it never does. It always comes up short. It always leaves us empty. We feel guilt, shame, regret, and the consequences for our sin. And I want you to focus on what is drawing away or enticing us. It's not God. God can't tempt. It's not even Satan here. What is drawing us away and enticing us? It says it is his own desires. There is no excuse that we can make. There's no blame that we can shift on someone or something else. It starts with us. It's our fault. If you look at Mark chapter 7, 20 through 23, it says, And he said, talking about Jesus, What comes out of a man that defiles a man? For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lewdness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness. All these evil things come from within and defile a man. Here again, Jesus is saying it's not from what's outside of us. Sin comes from our heart, our sinful desires. So not only can you not blame God, but you can't blame other people either. It's our fault. You might be tempted to say, well, it's my friend's fault that I gossip, because they're the ones that are actually bringing it up. I just joined in afterward. Or it's my teacher's fault that I argue with them in class, because they got something wrong. Or it's my family's fault for my anger, because they always are too controlling. Or my roommate's fault that I'm frustrated with them, because they never do their cleaning. We can easily blame shift. We can easily put our sin on somebody else. But what scripture says is, it's your fault, it's my fault. It's not anybody else's fault. We must take ownership and responsibility for our sin. No one can make you do wrong. If you ever find yourself thinking or saying, well they made me do it, that's not the case. You always have a choice. And number two, you must take sin seriously by taking heed of the consequences for your sin. If you look at the very next verse, James 1, 15, it says, then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin. And sin, when it is full grown, brings forth death. The story that I just told you perfectly illustrates this idea. Perembe thought that that little leopard cub was going to be harmless. He could feed it porridge. It could grow. And it wouldn't ever be a problem. Sometimes we think about that for our sin. We think, oh, this little sin, it's not going to harm anything. It doesn't hurt anybody. It's not going to cause any damage. But we see that it starts with a desire. It grows. It was birth to sin. And sin, when it's full grown, brings forth death, destruction. It can ruin your life. It's the opposite of what God wants as the giver of good gifts. God wants us to be able to live the good life. But when we choose to let little sins go unchecked, we don't deal with it. It grows into sin and then brings forth destruction. Just think about how some of these little sins can grow and ruin your life. Think about lying. It might start with just the idea of, oh, it's just a little white lie. A little exaggeration. I just bent the truth. It's no big deal. But when you continue in that, you get comfortable in those lies, and it continues and continues, people are going to find out. And then soon enough, you're going to ruin relationships. Nobody is going to be able to trust you. Think about envy. It starts with a little bit of envy, a little bit of jealousy here or there, but then it consumes you. And all you want to do is beat that other person. All you want to do is make yourself look better than that person. And it consumes all of your thoughts, everything that you do. Think about laziness. Starts with procrastinating on your homework assignment. You think, ah, I'll do it later. I'm just going to have fun. And then soon, you just get comfortable with being lazy. And you don't want to work hard. And then maybe that translates to your job. And you don't want to work at your job. You just want to play games on your phone. And then your boss finds out, and you can't hold a job. It could ruin your life, or maybe lust. Starts with looking one time at something that you think, oh, it's not that big of a deal. It's not all that bad. Nobody's going to find out. And then it grows. You get comfortable in that. It gets worse and worse and worse. And soon, you destroy your life with moral failure. Or one more gossip. Starts with just thinking, oh, yeah, it's no big deal. Let's talk about this a little bit. But we know that gossip spreads and spreads like a wildfire, and it can cause extreme damage. We must deal with our sin before it's too late. Just like that chief told Perembe saying, you must kill this leopard. We must kill our sin before it brings forth destruction. If you guys can turn to another passage in 1 Corinthians chapter 10. 1 Corinthians chapter 10. I'm going to read starting in verse 1 and then we're going to focus on verses 6 through 11. Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual rock that followed them, and that rock was Christ. But with most of them God was not well pleased, for their bodies were scattered in the wilderness. This is talking about the people of Israel, talking about actually some of the benefits that the people of Israel had. God was with them, God showed his presence through miracles, through the Shekinah glory, through the way that he provided for them. They had many privileges as being God's people. But then when you see, starting in verse six, it says, now these things became our examples to the intent that we should not lust after evil things as they also lusted. That idea of their desires that led to sin. And then I want you to see how it led to destruction in their lives. And do not become idolaters as were some of them. As it is written, the people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play. Nor let us commit sexual immorality, as some of them did, and in one day 23,000 fell. Nor let us tempt Christ, as some of them also tempted and were destroyed by the serpents. Nor complain, as some of them also complained and were destroyed by the destroyer. Now all these things happened to them as examples, and they were written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the ages have come. What is Paul saying here? Well, Paul is saying that these Israelites, even though they had these benefits, these privileges as being God's people, God showed his presence with them, they continued to sin. They let sin grow in their life, and in many cases, they were destroyed. Their lives were ruined. And so then Paul gives us a warning in the very next verse. This is a very important verse for us to grasp. It's been a challenge to me, making sure that I am not too proud, and I don't think that, oh, that'll never happen to me. I'm too far from that. I could never fall in that kind of way. Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed, lest he fall. We must take heed of the consequences. Perembe thought that he could control this leopard. He was a great hunter, he thought that the leopard could never turn on him, and if it did, he'd be able to control it. But what happened? He ignored the chief's warnings and he died. If you think that you could never fall in a big way, that is a very dangerous place to be in. This way of thinking could lead you to think, I can watch or listen to this, it won't actually affect me. I know more theology than my classmates, so I don't need help or accountability. I'll fix this issue later, I've got time. You think, oh, I'll deal with it, it's fine, I'm good. But if you leave your sin unchecked, you are setting yourself up for failure. Two-fall. Now I have seen firsthand and heard countless stories of people, even in ministry, who let this happen. It didn't start with one, it wasn't just one bad choice, and then they were out of ministry. It started with something little, And it grew and grew and grew until it was that one big choice that put them out of ministry. And I don't want that to be me, and I really don't want that to be any of you guys either. We must take sin seriously and take heed of the consequences for our sin. And number three, you must take sin seriously by taking decisive action against your sin. By taking personal responsibility, by taking heed of the consequences, by taking decisive action. If you look at the very next verse in 1 Corinthians 10, after he says, take heed lest you fall, he gives us this encouragement. No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man. A God is faithful, who will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you are able, but with the temptation will also make the way of escape, that you may be able to bear it. This is a very encouraging verse for me and for all of us. The fact that, yes, there's this warning, we don't want to fall, we don't want to let sin grow and grow in our lives. God is faithful. God makes a way for us to escape. This verse is not teaching that God won't ever give us more than we can handle. It's saying that he will never give us more than we can handle in his own strength and power. It takes dependence on God in order to kill our sin. If you turn back to James chapter one, let's look at a few verses after what we were just reading, James chapter one, starting in verse 21. It says, therefore lay aside all filthiness and overflow of wickedness. We need to get rid of it. And what should we also do? And receive with meekness the implanted word which is able to save your souls. But be doers of the word and not hearers only deceiving yourselves. So we need to lay aside this wickedness before it's too late so that it does not grow and destroy our lives. But that's not enough. It's not enough just simply to get rid of the sin. We must also receive with meekness the implanted word. We need to take God's word seriously in our lives. both privately in our devotions, when we are listening to preaching, that we would receive it, that it would take root in our hearts. It says that it is God's word that is able to save our souls. We must be dependent on God and use his word in order to fight our sin. And it's not enough just simply to receive it, but we must be doers of the word. We must actually apply it and live it out. Another passage that talks about getting rid of our sin that I love is in Colossians chapter three, if you guys could turn there. Colossians chapter three. Colossians chapter three, starting in verse five, says, therefore put to death your members which are on the earth, fornication, uncleanness, passion, evil desire, and covetousness, which is idolatry. Now, Paul is taking this very seriously. He's saying that it's not enough just simply to deal with your sin or put it away or anything like that. He's using strong words here. Put it to death. It can't be something that goes unchecked in our lives. One way that I think of this is my relationship with spiders. I hate them. They're the worst. How many of you guys are with me? The spiders are just the worst. It's not that I'm scared of them, but they're gross. And they're just, yeah, I want to put them to death. Now, outside of our house, we have had some black widows. Black widows are a little bit different from even other spiders, because they are deadly. They're dangerous. And so if me or my wife were to get bit by a black widow, we would have to probably go to the hospital. It would not be fun. But if my little girl, Gracelyn, got bit by a black widow, that could be fatal. It's extremely scary, extremely deadly. And so when I see those black widows outside of my house, hiding in this little cranny right by the door, I don't say, hmm, how cute. Let's keep you around. I don't even say, oh man, let's not kill this thing. Let's just shoo it away. We don't want you around, but be free. Have fun. No. What I do is I take a shoe in one hand, and I take this spider killer spray in the other hand, I go up there and I spray that thing until it's dead. It's suffocating, it's falling to the ground, going like this. And then I don't stop there, I smash that thing into the ground over and over and over again until I don't see any more spider. That is what I'm talking about when I mean take decisive action against your sin. We shouldn't look at our sin and be like, I'll keep you around for a little bit longer. We shouldn't say, oh, yeah, I should probably deal with that sometime. We should say, you need to die. We need to get rid of this sin. I'm going to put it to death so that it does not come back. And again, it takes dependence on God. We can't do that on our own. It takes our effort, yes, but it also takes God's And that's why later on in Colossians 3, it talks about replacing with other things, and it talks about letting the word of Christ dwell in you richly. That's what it takes. If you do not have a good relationship with God's word, you are not letting God's word saturate your mind, then guess what? Your desires are going to be those sinful desires that grow into sin, which grows into destruction. But if you are letting your mind be filled with God's word, be saturated with God's word, then that is what your desires are gonna be. They're gonna be in line with God. So I challenge you to put to death your sin in the power of God. You must take sin seriously by taking personal responsibility. Don't blame God, don't blame other people. It's your fault. My sin is my fault. Number two, by taking heed of the consequences for your sin. You need to recognize the consequences down the road if you let this sin go unchecked. And by taking decisive action against your sin. Don't let it stay. Don't be like Perembe and ignore the warnings. Say, oh, I got this, no big deal. Take decisive action and kill your sin before it's too late. Little leopards become big leopards, and big leopards kill. Little sins left unchecked will destroy your life. You must kill your sin before it's too late. Are you going to take your sin seriously? That's what I want to challenge you with. Just think about that. Are you doing that currently? If not, what ways are you going to start taking your sin seriously? I know that I have struggled with blaming other people but taking ownership of it. I know that I have not taken heed of the consequences. And I know that I definitely, there's been times that I've let sin stay. But we've got to kill it. We've got to get rid of it before it's too late.
Taking Sin Seriously
Sin originates from our own desires and leads to destruction if left unchecked. We must take personal responsibility for our actions, heed the consequences, and take decisive action against sin. God's Word provides the strength to overcome temptation and live a life of holiness and righteousness.
Sermon ID | 31925212383147 |
Duration | 30:20 |
Date | |
Category | Chapel Service |
Bible Text | James 1:13-15 |
Language | English |
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