I Timothy 5
Pleasure...
One word that has such much behind it. Currently an entire generation is founded upon this one word. Sooo many people have given in to this word and its implications. Even as I see the word in front of me, multiple things come to mind. Things from food, to hanging out with friends, to drugs, alcohol, sex, fame, fortune, etc... all are pleasures to people.. Maybe not so appealing to you, but something in your life is pleasurable to you. But many people seek pleasure with everything they are, they seek to find meaning, joy, a good time.. Pleasure becomes what they serve. Their number 1. It defines them. But pleasure, just like anything on this earth, comes and goes. It never stays. You never get the high that stays, the drunkenness that never goes away, the problems all return the next day, and will usually be worse. Fame won't last forever, bands, actors, athletes, writers, etc all come and go.. Not remembered very long.. Money is just money, it can buy you whatever you want, but there is still a gap that it can't fill. Friends will hurt you, relationships will crumble out from under you.. None of it lasts. Satisfaction is the opposite though. Satisfaction, in its truest sense, never fades. It never diminishes. It is perfect. The only that will ever satisfy us is God and nothing else. That void in our lives can be filled by Him and only Him. In Him we can find perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3-4), in Him we can find perfect strength (Philippians 4:13), in Him we find perfect love (I Corinthians 13), in Him we find definition (Jeremiah 18), in Him we find hope. Yet so often we turn to sin to give us pleasure in belief that it will satisfy us. Reality is that sin's pleasures will not satisfy, but will pull us from our King and put us in chains, creating a hunger for the next step in pursuit of satisfaction and we go deeper and deeper into it in search of that satisfaction, but never find it. Then we find ourselves realizing that we are lost in misery, hopeless, feeling like there is no way out, like there is no possible way we could ever go back to where we used to be. So we do what we think is best, go deeper and deeper into sin.. The phrase, "The best way to get out of a hole is to stop digging" applies here. Instead of seeking pleasure at all costs, we need to seek satisfaction. Why waste our time when we could find everything we ever wanted and more? Problems and hardships will still come, but that does not mean that God is failing you, but rather that you must depend on Him more to get through it! We must cry out to Him to hold us in His hands through thick and thin and have us grow into the man or woman He desires us to be. Pastor Greg Laurie says, "Big God, small problem; small god, big problem." he is saying that your view of God influences how you see your problems.. The bigger and more powerful you see God (as He is really is), the problems become less of a big deal.. I have seen this in my own life countless times.. The past 2 years have been 2 of the hardest years of my life, but God worked through them to show me that He is a big God and a powerful God and He loves me more than I will ever know. If we see Him as a small god, unable to do much, not caring about us, our problems will seem insurmountable and we have no where to turn and very quickly become devoured by the problem and become entangled in sin.
If you are living a pleasure driven life think about this, why are you doing it and where has it gotten you? Are you really happy?? Not on the outside, where you can fool anyone, but on the inside, the core of you, are you truly happy? The Bible says that "she (or he) who lives in pleasure is dead while she (or he) lives." (I Timothy 5:6) (Yes, I know this is taken out of context to an extent, but the message rings just as true to anyone)... I know that I was miserable, I felt like I had no escape, like God could never take me back. Many of my friends wouldn't... But yet, He did, and He gave me purpose and hope and defined me. I saw love in a way I had never seen. I saw life from a new perspective. I saw people as God's creation that He loves... But I learned that sin does catch up to you and there are consequences for what we do.. I Timothy 5:24 says that "The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later." This means that no matter what, you will have consequences for what you have done.. Whether in this life or on judgement day.. I would much rather be forgiven though than face the Creator of the universe and say that I spent my life rebelling against Him, which is what sin is in its truest sense..
This is a heavy post family, but we are called to holiness by God (Lev 20:26).. We need to be a pure generation, untainted by the pleasures this world has to offer, leaving our chains in the past and running to our King, not our bondage. Jesus has paid our debt, let's not forget that and take it for granted. He humbled Himself, became like His creation, lived a perfect life, was betrayed by one of His closest friends with a kiss, beaten, whipped to the point His internal organs were showing through His back, then got up and carried a cross that was about 110 pounds down a stretch of about 650 yards, while being spit at, probably hit by citizens, mocked, beat by the guards, He collapsed at a point and Simon was told to carry it the rest of the way, He was then nailed to the cross, died of suffocation, in sheer agony, and yet utters phrases from the cross, including "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." This statement has left me to wonder, was Jesus speaking of the people that killed Him that day, or the ones that He came to forgive because we do not understand the EXTREME Levity of sin any longer, that Christ would ask God to forgive us for that. He did that for us, to save us from our bondage to sin, that pit of despair, the life of misery, the addiction, meaningless life... He changed all of that on the cross of Calvary. Yet, we treat sin as if it was no big deal. That white lie, experiment smoke, drunken night, belittling comment, that addiction that is being held in the darkness, etc.. he died because you did that. That is love family...
Pleasure through sin destroys the core of who you are and breaks God's heart, seek Him
Blessings
Pleasure...
One word that has such much behind it. Currently an entire generation is founded upon this one word. Sooo many people have given in to this word and its implications. Even as I see the word in front of me, multiple things come to mind. Things from food, to hanging out with friends, to drugs, alcohol, sex, fame, fortune, etc... all are pleasures to people.. Maybe not so appealing to you, but something in your life is pleasurable to you. But many people seek pleasure with everything they are, they seek to find meaning, joy, a good time.. Pleasure becomes what they serve. Their number 1. It defines them. But pleasure, just like anything on this earth, comes and goes. It never stays. You never get the high that stays, the drunkenness that never goes away, the problems all return the next day, and will usually be worse. Fame won't last forever, bands, actors, athletes, writers, etc all come and go.. Not remembered very long.. Money is just money, it can buy you whatever you want, but there is still a gap that it can't fill. Friends will hurt you, relationships will crumble out from under you.. None of it lasts. Satisfaction is the opposite though. Satisfaction, in its truest sense, never fades. It never diminishes. It is perfect. The only that will ever satisfy us is God and nothing else. That void in our lives can be filled by Him and only Him. In Him we can find perfect peace (Isaiah 26:3-4), in Him we can find perfect strength (Philippians 4:13), in Him we find perfect love (I Corinthians 13), in Him we find definition (Jeremiah 18), in Him we find hope. Yet so often we turn to sin to give us pleasure in belief that it will satisfy us. Reality is that sin's pleasures will not satisfy, but will pull us from our King and put us in chains, creating a hunger for the next step in pursuit of satisfaction and we go deeper and deeper into it in search of that satisfaction, but never find it. Then we find ourselves realizing that we are lost in misery, hopeless, feeling like there is no way out, like there is no possible way we could ever go back to where we used to be. So we do what we think is best, go deeper and deeper into sin.. The phrase, "The best way to get out of a hole is to stop digging" applies here. Instead of seeking pleasure at all costs, we need to seek satisfaction. Why waste our time when we could find everything we ever wanted and more? Problems and hardships will still come, but that does not mean that God is failing you, but rather that you must depend on Him more to get through it! We must cry out to Him to hold us in His hands through thick and thin and have us grow into the man or woman He desires us to be. Pastor Greg Laurie says, "Big God, small problem; small god, big problem." he is saying that your view of God influences how you see your problems.. The bigger and more powerful you see God (as He is really is), the problems become less of a big deal.. I have seen this in my own life countless times.. The past 2 years have been 2 of the hardest years of my life, but God worked through them to show me that He is a big God and a powerful God and He loves me more than I will ever know. If we see Him as a small god, unable to do much, not caring about us, our problems will seem insurmountable and we have no where to turn and very quickly become devoured by the problem and become entangled in sin.
If you are living a pleasure driven life think about this, why are you doing it and where has it gotten you? Are you really happy?? Not on the outside, where you can fool anyone, but on the inside, the core of you, are you truly happy? The Bible says that "she (or he) who lives in pleasure is dead while she (or he) lives." (I Timothy 5:6) (Yes, I know this is taken out of context to an extent, but the message rings just as true to anyone)... I know that I was miserable, I felt like I had no escape, like God could never take me back. Many of my friends wouldn't... But yet, He did, and He gave me purpose and hope and defined me. I saw love in a way I had never seen. I saw life from a new perspective. I saw people as God's creation that He loves... But I learned that sin does catch up to you and there are consequences for what we do.. I Timothy 5:24 says that "The sins of some men are conspicuous, going before them to judgment, but the sins of others appear later." This means that no matter what, you will have consequences for what you have done.. Whether in this life or on judgement day.. I would much rather be forgiven though than face the Creator of the universe and say that I spent my life rebelling against Him, which is what sin is in its truest sense..
This is a heavy post family, but we are called to holiness by God (Lev 20:26).. We need to be a pure generation, untainted by the pleasures this world has to offer, leaving our chains in the past and running to our King, not our bondage. Jesus has paid our debt, let's not forget that and take it for granted. He humbled Himself, became like His creation, lived a perfect life, was betrayed by one of His closest friends with a kiss, beaten, whipped to the point His internal organs were showing through His back, then got up and carried a cross that was about 110 pounds down a stretch of about 650 yards, while being spit at, probably hit by citizens, mocked, beat by the guards, He collapsed at a point and Simon was told to carry it the rest of the way, He was then nailed to the cross, died of suffocation, in sheer agony, and yet utters phrases from the cross, including "Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do." This statement has left me to wonder, was Jesus speaking of the people that killed Him that day, or the ones that He came to forgive because we do not understand the EXTREME Levity of sin any longer, that Christ would ask God to forgive us for that. He did that for us, to save us from our bondage to sin, that pit of despair, the life of misery, the addiction, meaningless life... He changed all of that on the cross of Calvary. Yet, we treat sin as if it was no big deal. That white lie, experiment smoke, drunken night, belittling comment, that addiction that is being held in the darkness, etc.. he died because you did that. That is love family...
Pleasure through sin destroys the core of who you are and breaks God's heart, seek Him
Blessings
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