It's Just Not Worth It

It’s Just Not Worth It!

9/28/97 Proverbs 7:6-24 1 Corin10:1-13

Have you ever been as dumb as I have in which you did something you knew was wrong. It even seemed liked fun and was kind of enjoyable at the moment, but later when your actions were discovered and you had to pay the price, you said to yourself, "It just wasn’t worth it." Tell your neighbor, "if you’re thinking of doing wrong, it’s just not worth it." Friday’s headlines were full of people whose past actions had caught up with them. They never planned to get caught or found out. But they did. Some will tell you now, "it was fun for a while, but it wasn’t worth it."

The moment we come into the world, a partner immediately comes to our side. The partner is committed to being with us till the day we die. Our partner will be there when we get out of bed, when we go to the bathroom, when we go to school, when we go to work, when we’re alone in the car, when we make it back home, when we’re getting ready for bed, and even when we’re in the bed.

Our partner will appear at times to have left, but don’t believe it for a moment. We are more married to that partner than we will ever be to another person. We can’t even get away, by going into the corners of our mind. Who is this partner who we can hear clearer than we can hear God? Our partner is temptation. You can’t pray to God to get rid of it, but you can allow God to help you from being its slave. If you don’t, you will find yourself saying way too often, "it just wasn’t worth it."

Our text for this morning involves a young man who lived in the best of mansions. He drove the latest set of wheels. He had the finest of designer clothes. Women would have jumped at the chance to have been chosen his wife. He was the number one prince in his father’s house, and when his father died, he would be the next king. By most people’s standards, this fellow was sitting on the top of the world. He truly appeared to be "all that." Our text is found in 2 Samuel 13. Our character who had the world at his feet was none other than Prince Amnon, the son of King David.

2 Sam 13:1 In the course of time, Amnon son of David fell in love with Tamar, the beautiful sister of Absalom son of David. I want you to notice first the Scriptures says, in the course of time. What happened to Amnon didn’t hit him all at once. It probably started out as something very innocent. A smile, a polite word, sharing a joke or a laugh or doing something which was fun together. Often times, our partner temptation starts with a desire which is already in us and relatively harmless. If this was being written about you, what is it you have fallen in love with during the course of time. Is it money, is it a person, is it fame, is it power, or is it pleasure. All of temptations can fit into one of those five areas.

Now King David, had taken more than one wife, and now he has one wife’s kid looking at another wife’s kid. Amnon believes he’s in love with his half sister. Now here was a man who could have a choice of beautiful women, but he decides to choose the one he shouldn’t have. The moment we can’t have something, all of a sudden it seems like the better choice.

Have you ever had to choose between two items in the store, and the moment you choose one and walk out the door, before you get out the door, you start thinking, I probably should have chosen the other one. Now that you can’t have it, it looks like it was the better choice.

Amnon just wouldn’t let this feeling inside of him go. That’s when his partner temptation sprang to life. 2 Sam 13:2 Amnon became frustrated to the point of illness on account of his sister Tamar, for she was a virgin, and it seemed impossible for him to do anything to her. Tamar was a woman of faith and of character. She wasn’t the kind of woman who was going to compromise her moral values for any man, not even the most prized eligible bachelor in the country.

Our partner temptation has a close relative that he will often send to us. His name is bad advice. Amnon had a cousin by the name of Jonadab. He see his nephew looking so sad, and he said, " My man, What’s up. You’re the king’s son, you ought not to be looking like this day after day. You’re the man. Nothing ought to have you in the down and out. You can talk to me, maybe I can help."