by Jeffrey W. Hamilton<\/p>\n\t
I. I’ve been telling my wife that clearly I need to lose some weight. <\/p>\n A. Teasingly I’ve pointed out that the concerns of the last few weeks have some\nbenefit, I’ve lost my appetite and dropped a few pounds.\n
B. Perhaps I can keep that going. I’ve heard:<\/p>\n
1. If you eat something and no one sees it, it has no calories!<\/p>\n 2. If you drink a diet soda and a candy bar, the diet soda cancels out the\ncalories in the candy bar!\n 3. Pieces of cookies don’t have any calories. Breaking up the cookie causes\nthe calories to leak out, so eating a piece of a cookie doesn’t matter … no\nmatter how many pieces you eat.\n 4. Foods that have the same color have roughly the same number of calories,\nsuch as spinach and pistachio ice cream!\n
II. Clearly none of those things are true. <\/p>\n
A. No one would try to lose weight doing those things.<\/p>\n
B. If you believe those things, you would clearly be deceiving yourself.<\/p>\n
C. But isn’t that what people do with sin?<\/p>\n
III. Deception<\/p>\n
A. An act isn’t sinful if no one else knows about it.<\/p>\n
B. It can’t be a sin if everyone else is doing it.<\/p>\n
C. You can’t be guilty if there are other people who are doing worse things.<\/p>\n
D. It can’t be a sin if you like it. Sin only involves nasty things.<\/p>\n
E. It can’t be a sin if you only do a little bit or for only a little while.<\/p>\n
F. Watch out for the deceitfulness of sin – Hebrews 3:13<\/p>\n
IV. Sin deceives its victims<\/p>\n
A. It will take you farther than you want to go<\/p>\n 1. It always starts with just one “small” thing. The first drink, the first high,\nthe first make out\n
2. Pride comes in.<\/p>\n
a. I know its wrong. I can overcome this. I can do this without help<\/p>\n
b. And we do manage, for a bit, but its there waiting.<\/p>\n
3. Sin doesn’t stay isolated. <\/p>\n
a. We lie to ourselves – I can handle this<\/p>\n
b. We lie to others – I’m not going that far<\/p>\n c. We blame others – because if they see something wrong, then it\nmust be their fault.\n d. But we do go far, and then well, while I’m here I guess it doesn’t\nmatter if I also do something else as well.\n
B. It keeps you longer than you want to stay<\/p>\n
1. “I’m only doing it once in a while.”<\/p>\n
2. “One more time won’t hurt.”<\/p>\n
3. Hebrews 12:1<\/p>\n
C. It costs you more than you want to pay<\/p>\n 1. Sins have consequences. While we are caught up in sin, we don’t see\nwhere we are being lead or what will result from our actions.\n a. Does the addict think about killing someone while driving under\nthe influence?\n
b. Does the gambler think about being able to pay his bills?<\/p>\n c. Do people think about the physical pain, mental suffering, ruined\nmarriages, neglected children, broken homes due to their sins?\n 2. Does the sinner think about living with himself, knowing what he once\nwas and seeing the disgusting stain in his life?\n
V. Augustine once said, “the punishment for sin is sin.”<\/p>\n A. In many ways, he is right. The results of sin eventually corrode the soul and\ndestroys a man’s life.\n
B. In numerous ways, life is altered, shattered, degraded – I Peter 2:19-20<\/p>\n
C. Freedom in Christ – John 8:36. Will you be free from sin indeed?<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
by Jeffrey W. Hamilton I. I’ve been telling my wife that clearly I need to lose some weight. A. Teasingly I’ve pointed out that the concerns of the last few weeks have some benefit, I’ve lost my appetite and dropped a few pounds. B. Perhaps I can keep that going. I’ve heard: 1. If you eat something and no…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[179],"class_list":["post-63475","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-sermon","tag-sin"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":68482,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/should-i-marry-this-woman\/","url_meta":{"origin":63475,"position":0},"title":"Should I marry this woman?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 22, 2024","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hi, I'm a male in my late twenties. I've been dating my girlfriend, who is a few years older, for several years. It's been rocky because we didn't have God as the center of our relationship until the last few months. To make a super long story a lot\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":60828,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/is-there-hope-for-me-to-overcome-pornography\/","url_meta":{"origin":63475,"position":1},"title":"Is there hope for me to overcome pornography?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 22, 2023","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm a Christian and a member of the church of Christ. I've been married for 20 years. For most of those years, I have struggled with pornography. Nobody knows this about me. I'm also a very weak Christian. Here's how the cycle works for me: I watch porn, masturbate,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":50562,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/so-there-is-not-a-sin-gene\/","url_meta":{"origin":63475,"position":2},"title":"So there is not a sin gene?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 5, 2020","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Dear Jeffrey, Can you, if you get the chance, please confirm my understanding from one of your sermons\u00a0Infant Baptism? This is the first time ever, I've heard the thought we didn't inherit sin, and I'm staggered by that. So there is no sin DNA? We don't sin because we\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":37204,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/can-a-man-be-faithful-in-marriage-after-having-a-promiscuous-past\/","url_meta":{"origin":63475,"position":3},"title":"Can a man be faithful in marriage after having a promiscuous past?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 16, 2013","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: In my years, I have heard many little stories about men who have sex with as many women as possible before marriage, but when he is married, changes and remains faithful. Some men call it \"getting it out your system.\" However, I have never met a man who was\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":35393,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/did-i-sin-by-getting-baptized-again\/","url_meta":{"origin":63475,"position":4},"title":"Did I sin by getting baptized again?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"May 28, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Hello, I hope you are well and having a blessed day. I am writing you because I have been greatly troubled. I've prayed about it, and I've tried to get past the things I've done. To backtrack a little bit, I was first baptized into the church when I\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":53563,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/how-could-the-pharisee-be-guilty-of-the-unforgivable-sin-with-just-a-few-words\/","url_meta":{"origin":63475,"position":5},"title":"How could the Pharisee be guilty of the unforgivable sin with just a few words?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"June 28, 2018","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: I'm scared, for I've been wondering whether the Pharisees commit the unforgivable sin by just once saying blasphemous things about the Holy Spirit. I know it's said that the unforgivable sin isn't any single act from which there's no more turning back, but how does it seem that only\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63475","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=63475"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/63475\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=63475"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=63475"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=63475"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}