"THE
WAGES OF SIN"
Romans
6:23
(Part 1)
Romans
6:23, "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God
is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord."
"Let's turn in our Bibles to Romans
chapter 6, and we're looking at the very last verse of Romans
chapter 6, verse 23. Romans
chapter 6, verse 23. Very
familiar, it's one of those verses that I bet you most of
the country has heard. It's almost up there with John 3:16. This verse says "For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life
in Christ Jesus our Lord." You know,
as I've read my Bible, the Bible doesn't debate the existence
of sin. There's no
debate in the Bible like "Does sin exist or does it not exist?"
The Bible declares the existence of sin.
It's no debate. And
I think you don't have to live very long or be very smart
to know that sin exists. The bad in this world, the Bible says, is the
result of sin. The
wrong that you noted that you're doing, those bad things are
sin. [The Bible simply
defines sin in 1 John 3:4, "Sin is the transgression of the
law."] There are times
when God has put a line, and we know we shouldn't go over
that line, and we do it anyway.
That's sin. There's times when we're trying to do something
good and we miss, that's sin.
And the root of all the problems in the world politically,
economically, religiously, emotionally, physically goes back
to sin. Today I'm going to talk about the wages of sin.
Whoa, what an exciting topic-that's what I thought
too. But one of the
birthmarks of a believer is that we take sin seriously. We take it seriously. It's not some little unnecessary thing. We believe that God is concerned about sin,
and so sin concerns us. Now
sin is not always gross. In
fact, the first thing I want to share with you is, sin is
attractive. There is
an allurement to sin. There's
something about sin that is very attractive to us.
I think that's because there is pleasure in sin. I mean, growing up, the people were trying to
keep us from doing certain things, and I can remember them telling us 'Now sin is horrible, you stay away',
until I began to sin a little more.
And I began to realize, 'Hey! Sin is fun, man! What do you mean this is horrible?' Sin can feel good. Sin can look good. Sin can make you, you know, feel better about
yourself for a certain degree of time.
A life of sin does have its pleasures.
And I think we have to be honest, let's admit it, come
on. If sin weren't fun, people wouldn't be doing
it, gang. But the pleasures
of sin do not last. Look
at Hebrews chapter 11, verses 24-26.
Hebrews 11 is a really cool chapter.
If you've never read it, maybe you're a new Christian,
I'd encourage you this afternoon to read it. It's sort of like the Hallmark of Faith. You know, there's a Hall of Fame, there's the
Hall of this game or that game, you know, sports. But this is the Hall of Faith. OK? And
you see your spiritual ancestors here in Hebrews chapter 11. In verse 24 we're told about a guy named Moses,
who was in line to be the next Pharaoh of Egypt. Hebrews 11:24-26 says "By faith Moses when he
had grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh's daughter"-that
would have made him the next Pharaoh-"choosing rather to endure
ill treatment with the people of God than to enjoy the passing
pleasures of sin. Considering the reproach of Christ greater riches
than treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward." I mean, he turned away and walked away from
having it made, economically.
Having all the power in the world, all the things that
gold could buy, and they had gold in those days.
He walked away from all the pleasures, having a harem,
having any kind of stimulation that he might want, drug-wise,
and they had drugs and narcotics in those days. He walked away from all of it, choosing, he
made a choice, the most important choice of his life, choosing
to follow God rather than to follow the passing pleasures
of sin. Now the Bible admits there are pleasures in
sin. But some of you
are so myopic you only see the pleasure in sin, you don't
see the passing part. Sin and its pleasures fade pretty fast. But that's the deceitfulness of sin. And that's my next point.
Sin is not only attractive and pleasant, but sin is
deceitful. Look at Hebrews 3, verses 12 and 13. We're given a warning here, and an encouragement. He says, "Warning, take care brethren", verse
12, "lest there should be in any one of you an evil, unbelieving
heart in falling away from the Living God.
But encourage one another"-how long?-"day after day"-how
many days?-"as long as it is still called Today."-What's today,
gang? Still today,
right OK?-"Lest any one of you be hardened"-and read the rest-"by the deceitfulness of sin."
"See
to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving
heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as
it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by
sin's deceitfulness" (Hebrews 3:12-13, NIV).
Now how does sin deceive us? I believe that there are many ways, many things
that sin attempts to hide.
It's deceitful in what it hides, primarily.
Sin wants to hide from you, first of all, its pain. Remember, always following the pleasure of sin,
is the pain of sin. After
the party there's the hangover.
And Galatians 6:7-8 says, 'Don't be deceived, gang,
he says, 'God is not mocked. Whatever a man sows, that also will he reap.
And if a person sows into the flesh, they'll reap rottenness,
but if they sow unto the Spirit, they will reap eternal life
and peace.' The physical
pain of sin is something to remember before you go diving
into sin. You'd better remember David's experience in
Psalm 38, just listen to what he says.
This is after he was involved sexually, in sexual sin. Listen to what he says. "There is no health in my body. My bones have no soundness because of my sin.
My guilt has overwhelmed me, like a burden too heavy
to bear." Not only
his body was hurting, his spirit was hurting with guilt. "My wounds fester and are loathsome." He had some kind of outbreak of open sores.
"Because of my sinful folly, I am bowed down and brought
very low. All day long
I go about mourning. My
back is filled with searing pain.
There is no health in my body.
I am feeble and utterly crushed.
I groan in anguish of heart."
I don't know what he contracted. What did he get? 'He didn't practice safe sex. Right?' I
laugh at this safe sex stuff.
I really do. No
form of protection that you can "wear" can protect you from
the A.I.D.S. virus. The A.I.D.S. virus is so small it goes right
through the protection that you might wear.
It passes right through the spaces of the latex. It's that small. Is anybody telling you that? They say "Have safe sex." The only safe sex you can have, and you've heard
it before, is sex with one person that you marry, and that
person alone for the rest of your life.
That's the only safe sex there is.
"Well I'm older." "I've
been divorced, I've been separated. Yes, you should tell the
kids that." Yes, I'm
talking to you too. You
who fool around and think you're older than the Word of God
is, you know, doesn't apply to you anymore.
David experienced the pain of sin.
Billy Graham tells the story of a man who had a fling
with a woman who he met at a bar, and they were lonely, and
they went together to the motel, and they spent the night
together, and the next morning he woke up, felt for her, she
wasn't in bed, she had left.
He went on to take a shower and there scrawled onto
the mirror in lipstick it says "Hey, stupid, welcome to the
wonderful world of A.I.D.S."
She had the virus and didn't tell him until after the
episode. "Well, I'm always careful, I ask everyone whether
or not they have A.I.D.S. before I do anything." Oh, you are so stupid I can't believe it.
[laughter] You really think they're going to tell you the
truth. "Well, I trust
them." You're stupid, you really are. Listen to your Pastor tell you you're stupid. [laughter] Why
don't you trust God! God
says don't do it because God knows what can happen to you. Besides the physical pain of sin, sin wants
to hide the emotional pain that you have when you sin. Oh, the pain of regret of a ruined life. You have this plan for your life. And your life, because of unfaithfulness or
because you're not walking in the ways of God, you're life
ends a way that you don't want it to end.
You lose your family, you lose your home, you lose
your savings, you lose your reputation.
Our sin affects many more people than just ourselves.
It's so selfish when people step out on their families,
it's so selfish when guys rip off the job at work and then
they get caught, it's so selfish because they're not thinking
of their families. They're
not thinking of what they're doing to their wives.
They're not thinking of what they're doing to their
husbands, they're not thinking of what they're doing to their
children. [And here in Taxachusetts, and I imagine across
the country, parents who are heavily into drugs and alcohol
and raising kids improperly are virtually flooding the state's
Department of Social Services, which is a very poor substitute for good parents.
But sadly most of these kids end up under the roof
of some D.S.S. sponsored foster home, homes that are overcrowded
with problem kids that have severe emotional problems, all
thrown in together. The very building blocks of society, our families,
are crumbling. Crack
parents raise crack babies.
The list of society's woes due to sin is growing in
leaps and bounds as the decades roll by.] For a few moments of pleasure-yes there's pleasure
in sin-but there's pain in sin too.
And I think of the spiritual giants that have fallen,
even lately. And I think of the political giants who have
fallen in our Congress and our Senate, these people and the
things that they've been doing, immoral things, not all sexual
things. Some of them ripping off, writing bad checks,
ripping off the government.
And you think, while they were doing it, didn't they
know that someday their family would have to face the public
now? And now their
children, the son or daughter of this rip-off artist. The businesses they've owned, now they're bankrupt,
sitting in jail they've lost everything. Their name become a name you name a bad dog,
you know. There's pleasure
in sin, but there's pain in sin too.
I sit and I listen to the broken families, and I hear
the moms, and sometimes the dads saying, the little ones are
saying, 'When is Daddy coming home?" "Why isn't Daddy here?" "We want Daddy, where is he?" What do I tell them? I don't think anybody whose thinking about anybody
but themselves can do some of the things, playing around in
sin, not realizing that you can't sin by yourself.
Sin is like a cancer.
It's a malignant cancer, and it spreads all over the
body if you don't get it out. It affects all the other parts of the body.
And then there's the spiritual pain of sin.
Spiritually, feeling so far from God, feeling guilty.
Feeling like 'Oh' you
don't want the Lord to return. You used to love to think the Lord might return
at any moment, and now you're praying "God, don't come, whatever
you do, don't come today."
If he did, you'd be ashamed.
You'd be caught. And you know, nobody thinks about that. Satan doesn't say 'Now, here's this lovely little
thing, you can step into this now, it's gonna be fun, ooh
it's gonna feel good. (Maybe
for five minutes.) But
then after that, you're whole life will change.
You're gonna lose everything.
You're going to be ashamed.
You're not going to want anybody to see your face again.
You're going to feel like you've lost your relationship
with God.'
"Isaiah 59:1-2,
"Surely the arm of the Lord is not too short to save, nor
his ear too dull to hear. But your iniquities have separated you from
your God." (NIV)
Why doesn't
he tell us the whole story? It's because sin is deceitful. Sin hides, you see. It hides it, it doesn't want you to know everything
that's involved. The
discipline of God, oh man.
Hebrews 12, verses 4 through 12 talks about how God
disciplines his children when they continue in sin.
When you sin, Satan doesn't tell you ahead of time
'Now, God will discipline you! You're going to go on with this for three or
four or five or six months and you're not going to listen
to God, and finally he'll have to spank you, and I just want
you to know that ahead of time.' Of course he's [Satan] not going to tell you
that.
Hebrews 12:4-13, NIV. "In your struggle against sin, you have not
yet resisted to the point of shedding blood.
[Paul had] And
you have forgotten that word of encouragement that addresses
you as sons: 'My son, do not make light of the Lord's discipline,
and do not lose heart when he rebukes you, because the Lord
disciplines those he loves, and he punishes everyone he accepts
as a son.' [Proverbs 3:11-12] Endure hardship as discipline;
God is treating you as sons.
For what son is not disciplined by his father?
If you are not disciplined (and everyone goes through
discipline), then you are illegitimate children and not true
sons. Moreover, we
have all had human fathers who disciplined us and we respected
them for it. How much
more should we submit to the Father of our spirits and live! Our fathers disciplined us for a little while
as they thought best; but God disciplines us for our good,
that we may share in his holiness.
No discipline seems pleasant at the time, but painful.
Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness
and peace for those who have been trained by it.
Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees.
Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may
not be disabled, but rather healed."
I went
in for this thing this week, I had a stone about a half an
inch by half an inch stuck in my kidney.
Actually it was stuck just in the opening of my uriter,
which is even more painful. And everybody said, "Oh lithotripsy, this stone-blasting,
it's the only way to go, man.
And it's just painless, it's nothing, it's a piece
of cake." And so I went into it, you know, like I was
in pain, but I thought 'Oh, this is going to be great.' I got in there, and I've never had so much pain
in my whole life. I
thought I was going to die.
Three morphine shots later, I'm going 'What am I doing
here? Who's idea was
this? How about an
amputation from here down, you know, or from here down.' And then they said 'From here afterwards, it's
a piece of cake, those stones just come out, they're so small.' I am sorry, but I wasn't told the whole story.
No one told me what I was going to go through this
week. Had they, I probably
would have run away. You
wouldn't have had a pastor.
I would have just skipped town.
I wouldn't have taken any money, I just would have
skipped town. [laughter]
Oh, I've never had so much pain in my life.
And I'm a little upset at these turkeys who told me
how wonderful it was going to be. I'm upset with the doctor. Here I am in pain, I'm going to the doctor,
'I got to have something for pain, I'm dying.'
'Why? We blasted
it all, there's nothing there.'
'Oh, yes, I'm imagining this now.
But, ah, give me it anyway.'
And he says, 'Ah, there's nothing there.'
And then two nights later, I pass a stone bigger than
I've ever passed in my life! And I want to see the doctor, I want to stick
it in his uriter. [lots
of laughter!] And then I'm going to stand there and say 'What's
the matter?' [laughter] I'm
sorry, none of that is in my notes.
But there's a pain in sin that nobody tells you about. There is a pain in sin. And Satan carefully masks it, he carefully covers
it. 'Oh, we don't want
them to see that! We
don't want them to see a ruined marriage.
We don't want them to see a marriage that got healed,
but there's no trust.' Do you know what it's like to lose trust in
your marriage?-when you can't trust each other anymore. It's terrible, it takes years to undo what a
moment of pleasure can do.
And nobody tells us that.
But the Lord says he'll discipline you if you're his
child. He'll spank
you if you're his child. You
belong to him and he has a right to not let you go. You need to know where the parameters are.
You need know where discipline begins.
[And I want to add this here, because sooo many churches
overlook this. The
Bible defines sin as "the transgression of the law"-what law?-God's
Law, dummy. Whether
your denomination and your Christian conscience lead to you
believe it's the Old Testament 10 Commandments with Sabbath
and Holy Day commands, or the New Testament Law of Christ,
which basically is very similar but missing the Sabbath commands
(they've been made "optional" in Romans 14).
If John the apostle defined "sin as the transgression
of the law", then it is the very law of God, whichever version
your Christian consciences dictates, that defines the boundaries
you must not go across. This isn't a legalistic thing either. The proper purpose of the law is to define what
sin is. Now under the
new covenant, as it is defined in Jeremiah 31:31-33 and Hebrews
8:6-13, God writes his law in our hearts and minds.
How? That is what is being explained in this series
on Romans chapters 6-8. The
sin nature was made inoperative when you accepted Jesus Christ,
Yeshua haMeshiach for our Jewish believers.
Now we have a struggle to chose the right, obedience,
and reject the wrong, sin. And as Romans 6-8 explains, God has given us
the power to reject
sin and chose the right. James
in chapter 1:22-23 shows that the perfect law of liberty,
i.e. the law of God, is a spiritual mirror to show us where
the "dirt" is, where the sin is. The law has a vital purpose. Many ministers and denominations hedge around
the subject, but I will not.
I'm not being a legalist, I'm telling the whole truth
on the matter. Legalists expect you to keep the whole law,
whichever version, all on your own.
They ignore the very purpose for the law, and that
our ability to properly use it has to be empowered by God's
Holy Spirit. So, the
law of God is the boundary line, showing us where and what
sin is. Add that knowledge
to this sermon.] Just
like in our family, sometimes my kids, they just act, they
get raunchy, they just start.it's like, 'They want a spanking.'
And I'll tell Leslie, we really try to stay calm, thank
God we've done a good job so far in disciplining our kids
in love and not in anger.
Sometimes I say "You spank them, Leslie, because, you
know, I'm mad." Sometimes she'll say the same thing to me.
But I'll tell her, 'You know, Honey, I think Emily
wants a spanking, don't you?'
'Yes, I think she wants a spanking.'
'No! I don't!' [gives the raspberry]. 'Yes, honey, I think you do.' And I'm going to get the spanking stick right
now, and I'm going to apply it to your behind, bend over.' 'No! no!' 'Bend
over, move your hand.' You
know, we apply it Scripturaly on their behinds, where God
made that on little kids, and we don't use our hands, because
Scriptures say they ought to be used to give forth lessons,
so we use a little spanking stick that spreads the thing so
you don't bruise the child.
You know, do it Scripturaly, but in love.
Do it just until the point gets across.
Don't have to kill her, you know.
Whap, whap, whap. And
then, she hugs me. I mean, it's like a transformation in one moment.
'Thank you daddy, I love you daddy.'
And I think, man, she needed that.
She really needed that. [Now in some screwed up states in the US, it's
against the law to spank your kids, like in Massachusetts,
where if they find out, the D.S.S. will come and take your
kids away, like the Gestapo, banging on the door.
Texas though, is growing a brain again, and has passed
a law that says it's OK to spank your kids to discipline them.
So be careful to know what is legal and what isn't
in the state you live in.] She needed, it was like, 'How far could I go
before these turkeys are going to do something about it?' You know. I
just need to know where my barriers are, where are my limits? Oh, now that I know where my limits are, I'm
so much happier. And some of you are pushing it with God, I'm telling you. You are pushing it with God. And you know what? I've told you before, the hand that spans the
universe can span your buns, you know.
And your behind is going to feel the discipline of
God. And it's because he loves you, "As many as I
love, I rebuke and chasten" the Lord says.
But Satan doesn't tell you that either, you know. You're going to get a whupping, you know, you're
going to get it. 'Oh,
no, no, no, it's just, you want to do it.' the Beeper's going
off, the buzzer is buzzing, you know.
Your flesh is responding, of course.
That's the whole thing about the deceitfulness of sin
is that sin is covering the hook with bait. You don't drop a hook in the water and say "Fish,
fish, fish, fish, fish, here fishy, fishy, here's a barbed
hook for you to bite so I can reel you in and knock your brains
out." No fish in his right mind is going to go for
that one. And so what
do you do? You camouflage it. You make, I don't know, fish must have very
bad eyesight to see the things you guys put in there that
they bite for. But I'm sure heaven looks at us and says "He
bit that?
Gross." But
they put on the beautiful worm, woo, woo, woo, you know. ]laughter] And the fish looks at those curves on that worm,
and that fish says 'Oh, I've got a.' and that fish bites thinking
that he's just going after the desires of his flesh, but instead
he gets hooked, doesn't he.
There's a barb. There's a catch. And there's a catch in every kind of sin, not
just sexual sin, but in every kind of sin there is a barb,
a hook. And the outside, the covering is just there
to sugarcoat the bitter pill that you're taking. And you need to be aware that you don't get
away with it. That
once you bit it, it hooks you, and then you start feeling
out of control as you're reeled in, and you're bagged, and
then you're bonked. OK?
That's the way it works. And I want to encourage you men, flee youthful
lusts, flee immorality, flee temptation. Don't put yourself where all these hooks are
hanging with bait on them. You're in trouble if you do.
Proverbs 5:1-23,
NIV. "My son, pay attention to my wisdom, listen well to my
words of insight, that you may maintain discretion and your
lips may preserve knowledge. For the lips of an adulteress drip honey, and
her speech is smoother than oil; but in the end she is bitter
as gall, sharp as a double-edged sword.
Her feet go down to death; her steps lead straight
to the grave [Hebrew: Sheol]. She gives no thought to the way of life; her
paths are crooked, but she knows it not.
Now then, my sons, listen to me; do not turn aside
from what I say. Keep to a path far from her, do not go near
the door of her house, lest you give your best strength to
others and your years to one who is cruel, lest strangers
feast on your wealth and your toil enrich another man's house.
At the end of your life you will groan, when your flesh
and 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 ruin in the midst of the whole assembly.'
Drink water from your own cistern, running water from
your own well [i.e. make love with your own wife].
Should your springs overflow in the streets, your streams
of water in the public squares? Let them be yours alone, never to be shared
with strangers. May
your fountain be blessed, and may you rejoice in the wife
of your youth. A loving doe, a graceful deer-may her breasts
satisfy you always, may you ever be captivated by her love. Why be captivated, my son, by an adulteress?
Why embrace the bosom of another man's wife?
For a man's ways are in full view of the Lord, and
he examines all his paths. The evil deeds of a wicked man ensnare him;
the cords of his sin hold him fast.
He will die for lack of discipline, led astray by his
own great folly."
Sin is deceitful, not only in its
covering and hiding from us the pain of sin, it hides from
us the power of sin as well.
You know, what starts out as fun can really end in
frustration. I see
these kids, they walk into junior high, [he's making loud
inhaling and blowing out sounds, to imitate kids taking drags
off cigarettes]. Why can't they smoke like a normal person smokes?
It's like, 'Hey, I've got a cigarette in my mouth,
everybody.' you know.
Turkeys. Oh, they're so cool. You know, what is so cool about smoking? Huh? You
stink when you smoke. You
do. Excuse me, I don't
mean to offend you, but you do.
You smell like an ashtray.
You're breath, 'Hello.'gag, cough.
You could work for Benny Hinn, you know [lots of laughter].
And maybe the commercials and the billboards make it
look so cool, it's so great, man. You know, you smoke and all these babes will
be hanging around you. Yeah,
just asking for cigarettes off of you, that's the only reason
they're hanging around you.
They don't want to pay for their own.
But they don't show that that then it gets a power
on you, it's an addictive substance, and you can't stop. And you begin pouring your money, burning your
money. Why don't you
burn five dollar bills instead.
Just smoke five dollar bills, [sucking sound] you know.
'I need to roll me another one, another five dollar
bill.' And then you see I'm the one then, left dealing
with the basket cases that are dying of emphysema, dying of
lung cancer, have throat cancer, mouth cancer-and why? Why? Because
someone didn't realize that sin has a power, it gets a power
on your life, it's addictive.
The guy who starts out, he starts out peeking at the
magazine rack, you know those top magazines up there that
you're not supposed to be looking at. Going into the bookstore, going around the corner
where it says adults only.
'Well, I'm just looking, I'm just wondering what's
in there.' And pretty soon you're not just looking anymore,
you're buying, and you're bringing it home. Your mind is filled with it, you burn the stuff,
but then you've got to get more.
And it gets in your system.
And you need more and more, and you go to harder and
harder stuff, and you start acting out some of what you've
seen, and you can't get it out of your mind.
Hey, why don't the pornographers tell you what pornography
does to a marriage, what it does to people? Why don't they tell you it's slavery. No, there's money in it. There's always money in sin. There's always money in sin, and there's always
people that want to make money off of other people. They don't care. Sin is addictive, it's power is so strong, man.
David said "Also keep back thy servant from presumptuous
sins, let them not rule over me." Sin can rule over you. He said, "Lord, don't let any iniquity have
dominion over me" in Psalm 119.
Jesus said, "Truly, truly I say to you, everyone who
commits sin is the slave of sin."
Jesus admitted there is a slavery to sin.
And what can start out being fun, man, you're just
tokin' a number, you know. Pretty soon you realize that you can't stop. Pretty soon you realize that you can't stop
drinking, it was fun at first, just an occasional beer, and
now you can't stop drinking, it's the first thing you do in
the morning and the last thing you do at night.
[Calvary Chapel's don't believe in drinking alcohol,
even though they know drinking in extreme moderation
is not sin, but allowed by the Bible. But if it turns into a problem, stop before
it becomes an addiction. I
speak from experience.] And
don't give me this baloney, 'Where does the Bible say it's
sin.' 'Where does the
Bible say I can't smoke, say I can't drink?' The Bible says 'Don't abuse your body.' That's what the Bible says. [and again, I say,
drinking alcohol in extreme moderation is not abuse of your body. But beware, it can become an addiction slowly
over time if you consume more and more as your tolerance goes
up. The Bible does preach that in Proverbs. But remember, Jesus first miracle at Cana was
to create well over fifty gallons of high quality wine out
of water at a wedding feast where the poor couple had run
out of wine. Calvary Chapel's major as a healing ministry
for addicts and those who have alcohol addictions, so their
stance is geared toward that, abstinence, which is proper.
But it's improper to say the Bible says something it
doesn't. Some Calvary pastors are starting to admit that
drinking in extreme moderation is OK, but it's better to not
even get started. Considering
the Christian restoration work the Lord does through them
with drug and alcohol addicted people, I would have to agree
with their recommendation for people who are part of their
congregations. Makes
it easier on those of us who have come off an addiction to
drugs or alcohol (like me, I can relate)]
The Bible says 'Don't be stupid' in so many words.
I'll find the translation that says it, don't worry
guys, you know me. [laughter] We'll
find it for you. The
Bible says you're a temple of the Holy Spirit, the Bible says
'Thou shalt not kill.' These
billboards and advertisements during the Olympics are driving
me bananas. Here's all the beer, Budweiser, Olympia, and
everybody else, Michelob, supporting the Olympics, and all
these Jocks and Jills (you know, that's a girl Jock), anyway
they're out there exercising, "And sponsored by xxxx".
And why don't they tell the truth.
Why don't they show you what happens to guys who drink
a lot of beer, whump!-there it is, the old beer belly, the
old beer gut, looks like a keg, attached. [laughter] And
like, they're not going to go run anywhere, except to the
liquor store, except to Circle-K where they can get it on
sale. It's about all the running they do, and to the
bathroom, you know. Drinking
that stuff doesn't make you an athlete.
Getting out and getting your shoes on and running,
that might make you an athlete.
But you see, sin is so deceitful, it's like we got
to wake up and we got to say 'OK, come on, we're not just
going to be dummies anymore.'
We must think. Think
about this, we've got to think about the end result.
Do I want to go in that direction?
The company I chose, you know, the apostle Paul said
bad company corrupts good morals in 1st Corinthians
15:33. In other words, pick your companions carefully.
You should always ask yourself the question, 'Do I
want to be like them?' 'Do I want to be like these people that I'm
hangin' around with?' [Solomon
had some words of wisdom in Proverbs about this.
Basically, 'Hang around a fool, become a fool, hang
around a wise man and become wise' was the gist of it.]
Or do you want to be different?
If you're a Christian you want to be different.
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