Stop Watch & Sin

Bulletin

Dan Peters
11/13/22 - Sin

One of my four sons told me a story that helped me. I hope it will help you too. It is a story that illustrates the problem we all face. Morally he was struggling to do the right thing, that is not to sin. Having fallen into sin too often, he decided to take his watch out and time it. How long could he go without sinning. Of course, each time he sinned, he had to reset the watch. But he realized that just resetting the watch, and timing the intervals between sins, was not working. Like trying to lose weight, just weighing your self every day, doesn’t make you actually lose weight. But at least you are trying to address the problem.
But instead of throwing in the towel, and giving up. He had another idea. What if he focused on God? That he would seek God’s glory as his chief aim, his #1. Soon thereafter, he began to realize that he was sinning much less often. He had a greater purpose in life than simply not sinning, but to glorify God.
When we morally fail, we feel guilty, and God is not glorified in our being. “for all   have sinned and fall short of the glory of God,” (Rom. 3:23). So looking at sin a different way, is simply failure to glorify God. We get punished immediately when we do, at least emotionally punished; we feel guilty. Some psychologists work at removing the guilt, without removing the sin. They try to intellectually, or emotionally, override the conscience. But all the ways of “justifying” sin, doesn’t work very well. God is trying to tell you something in the guilt. Your moral conscience matters, it is as tough as nails. You don’t run well on a guilty conscience, but you can try. You can get to the point that you no longer have much of a conscience left, but we do so at a high price. We hate ourselves for the wrong we have done, and we can take it out on the people around us. They pay the price also, for the misery we find ourselves in.
Jesus had a mission. He was going to glorify God on the earth, and try and get us to do the same. Jesus prayed, just before he died,“I glorified You on the earth, having accomplished the work which You have given Me to do.” (John 17:4). To glorify God is not to simply not sin, but to aim to magnify the goodness of God in our life, our bodies. Peter says of Jesus, “You know of Jesus of Nazareth, how God anointed Him with the Holy Spirit and with power,   and how He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him.” (Acts 10:38). Note the phrase, “went about doing good”. Daily he went about glorifying his father in heaven. Here is your mission, if you choose to accept it. Learn from Jesus that God being glorified is your highest possible good. There are many lesser good things to do, but this is the highest good, Jesus.
                                                                              Dan Peters