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Apples of Gold
Radio Script for December 16, 2009
“You Can’t Let Sin Slide”
Hello, I’m Doug Apple…with Apples of Gold.
You can’t let sin slide.
There are different ways of dealing with it, but you cannot let it slide.
This is a message for people in a position of spiritual leadership.
I was talking to an older gentleman about a church he attended for many years. He regaled me with tales of powerful sermons and a booming congregation.
“He was the best preacher in the area,” he said, “maybe even in the whole state. And he lived it.”
Well the church wasn’t booming now, so what happened?
“Oh, he preached hard against sin, but when things came up in the congregation, he didn’t deal with them. There was even some blatant sin among leadership, but he just didn’t deal with it. He didn’t want to confront anyone. He let it slide and it festered. It undermined the ministry, and the church lost its power.”
Let that be a lesson to anyone in spiritual leadership. You can’t let sin slide.
Yesterday one of my coworkers was talking about an old relative of his who got saved from a rough background and became a preacher. And here’s what kind of man he was. If he saw one of his people smoking, he would walk right up and yank the cigarette out of their mouth. He would say, “What are you doing? Don’t you know your body is the temple of the Holy Ghost?”
That’s one way to do it. Often the best way to deal with sin is to take quick and decisive action.
I know a man who hired a new employee. Then he found out that the new employee was showing dirty pictures around the office, which was followed by a quick and decisive firing.
I remember walking into church one time and some teenagers were goofing around, and they were blasting some bad secular music from their boom box right there in church. I told them to turn it off, and no one made a move. So I went over and yanked the plug from the wall. “Not in church,” I said.
A great biblical example of dealing decisively with sin is when Jesus drove the money changers from the temple. In John 2 it says Jesus went to the temple courts in Jerusalem and “found men selling cattle, sheep and doves, and others sitting at tables exchanging money. So He made a whip out of cords, and drove all from the temple area, both sheep and cattle; he scattered the coins of the money changers and overturned their tables. To those who sold doves He said, ‘Get these out of here! How dare you turn my Father’s house into a market?’”
And I like the conclusion of that episode in John 2:17. It says, “His disciples remembered that it is written: ‘Zeal for your house will consume me.’”
A great Old Testament example is found in Nehemiah 13. The law said that no Ammonite could be admitted into the assembly of God, but Eliashib the priest actually provided a room in there for the Ammonite Tobiah. It was the chamber where they stored the tithes and offerings, and the temple articles, and they moved it all out just for Tobiah.
Well Nehemiah was gone when this happened, but then he came back and found out about it, and what did he do? In verse 8 Nehemiah said, “I was greatly displeased and threw all Tobiah’s household goods out of the room.”
That is quick and decisive action. See you can’t let sin slide. You have to deal with it.
But not every situation calls for sudden and explosive action. Ezra shows us another way of dealing with “sin in the camp.”
In Ezra chapter nine, it was reported to Ezra that many leaders in Israel, including priests and Levites, were intermarrying with various local tribes who participated in evil, which was expressly forbidden.
What did Ezra do? Listen to what he said. “When I heard this, I tore my tunic and cloak, pulled hair from my head and beard and sat down appalled…and I sat there appalled until the evening sacrifice.”
At the sacrifice he cried out to God. And others joined him, and they wept bitterly over the sin of the people.
So did they leap into action? Not really, but they did put a plan into motion. It took some time, but they dealt with the problem. They didn’t let it slide at all, they just handled it in a more methodical manner.
In First Corinthians 5 we have an example of a church that didn’t deal with sin in their midst, and Paul rebuked them for it. He said, “Don’t you know that a little yeast works through the whole batch of dough?”
He told them not to associate with someone who called themselves a brother in Christ, but who was “sexually immoral or greedy, an idolater or a slanderer, a drunkard or a swindler. With such a man do not even eat.” And in verse 13 he concluded, “Expel the wicked man from among you.”
That sounds harsh, but we’re talking about an unrepentant man that calls himself a Christian and wants to be part of your church but also wants to continue to blatantly live in sin.
So do you let it slide? No, you deal with it, head on. You confront it. You can be quick and decisive or circumspect and methodical, depending on the situation, but whatever you do, deal with it.
If you don’t, it won’t go away. It will spread. Like Paul said, it’s like yeast that works through the whole batch of dough.
So if you are in a position of spiritual leadership today, here is something you must remember.
You can’t let sin slide.
Comments?
E-mail me: dougapple@wave94.com.
May God bless you today! With Apples of Gold…I’m Doug Apple.
© 2009 The Arrow’s Tip
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(Proverbs 25:11 – “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.”)
Why “The Arrow’s Tip”? Each morning, after diligently seeking the Lord, I write Apples of Gold. Then before I release it to the public I pray one final prayer, “Lord, send forth your arrows.” I envision Apples of Gold as arrows, tips dipped in the river of the water of life that flows from the throne of God (Rev. 22:1), sailing toward the hearts and minds of men and women around the world.
Doug Apple
General Manager - Wave 94
Christian Radio for Tallahassee
PO Box 4105
Tallahassee, FL 32315
(850) 926-8000
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