3 Things Sin Will Always Do.

You might not know this but I am a Chicago Cubs fan. The Cubs have not won a World Series since 1908 when they beat the Detroit Tigers.

So there are a lot of joke about the losing ways of the Cubs.

One of those jokes makes a good introduction to this message.

A Cubs fan passed away and unfortunately did not go to heaven. When he arrived in hell the devil asked him if it was hot enough. The cubs fan replied, “It’s not too bad, reminds me of a typical July day in Chicago.”

The next day the devil turned up the heat and went back to the Cubs fan and asked if it was too hot yet? The Cubs fan answered, “No it’s not too bad, reminds me of an August day at Wrigley Field.”

This upset the devil so much that he thought, I show this guy and he turned the temperature in hell to 100 below zero. He went up to the Cubs fan and asked, “Now what do you think of my place?”

Shivering the Cubs fan answered, “It’s tooooo cooooooold but that’s ok because the Cubs must have won the World Series.”

Although it is a good joke, it does not really portray hell in a true sense. The truth is that hell is not a pleasant place.

The Scriptures describe hell as a place where there is weeping and gnashing of teeth, a place in which there is no relief from torment, a lake of fire that burns without end and a place in which there is no escape.

Why would anyone want to spend an eternity in a place like that? I am not sure, but I know this, God does not desire for you to be there, that is why His Son came to earth and went to heaven to prepare a place for us.

Today I want to talk to you about sin.

Pray

Father,

Open my eyes so I can see Your truth.

Open my ears so I can hear Your voice.

Open my mind so I can understand Your Word.

And open my heart so I may receive all that You want me to receive.

AMEN

We live in a world in which sin is very prevalent. I have said it before and I will say it again, there are more opportunities for people to sin now then there ever has been throughout history.

The devil has made it easy for people to sin. He has been perfecting sin for thousands of years.

What is sin? I should state that I am qualified t speak about sin since I am a sinner.

Simply defined; Sin is doing anything that causes a separation from God, which includes anything that we do that is contrary to God’s Word, the plan of God or the will of God.

Paul tells us in Romans 3:23, “For all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”

Everyone sins from time to time, the difference between a Christian and a non Christian is how we react when we sin.

We don’t have to sin but we often do fall into temptation.

Sin is different from temptation. Everyone is tempted to sin but the sin doesn’t happen if you can overcome the temptation.

You can be tempted to look at something you shouldn’t, say something you shouldn’t, cheat, lie, or anything else that would separate you from God but the temptation is not the sin. Remember that even Jesus was tempted to sin but He did not.

The temptation comes and if you begin to dwell on it, think about it, or even consider it for a moment, when you do you are opening yourself up to falling into a sin.

And when you open yourself up to sin you are spiritually separating yourself from God. Paul puts it this way in Romans 6:23, “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”

That spiritual death is what causes us to spend our eternity in hell.

Regardless of being saved by Jesus or not, everyone is eternal. What determines the place of our eternity is if we decide to live in our sin or if we try to live righteous, sin free lives before God.

God has given everyone the same opportunity to every person who has ever lived and to every person who will live and that opportunity is for the forgiveness of our sins and the promise of eternal life.

This does not mean that we won’t struggle with temptation from time to time, but what it does mean is when we do fall we can be sure that the grace of God will be enough for us and when we ask, we will be forgiven.