Dangers To Our Soul

Introduction

By a show of hands, who out here is a parent. You’re either in the process of raising your children or you’ve raised your children already. Okay, then you can probably relate to what I’m going to share with you. As a parent, as a father, and we were raising up our children. Some of the scariest times in being a parent, the most frightening was not necessarily something my children did or were doing, but it was me remembering what I did as a child. And thinking, are my children doing those things too? Because I don’t know about you, but it’s amazing that I survived childhood. Some of the things that we did and got into. Whether it was a contest to see who could hold on to the electric fence the longest.

Or whether it was many fights that I’ve shared with you that I had with my brothers, I can remember at least three trips to the emergency room as a result of those fights. It was a result of playing with knives and guns, which was just a staple in my childhood and my household. And I can remember the holidays. Holidays were dangerous. The 4th of July and New Year’s always brought with it fireworks, and that brought where I grew up, firework battles. We didn’t shoot bottle rockets up into the sky, we would shoot them at each other. Like the old West days, we would square off on the dirt road in front of my house and walk ten paces from each other and then turn around and light those bottle rockets and aim them at each other.

And when we ran out of bottle rockets, Roman candles became the weapon of choice. And you just think about it. And as a parent myself, I wondered, are my children doing those crazy things? And so, as a parent, much of what you try to do, isn’t it, is just to help your children survive. To try to insulate them or to protect them from certain dangers. And so you, much of your lecturing is don’t do that. You leave out the part because I did that and I have the scars, but don’t do that. That’s dangerous. And so we worry about those dangers. There’s tons of physical dangers. Much of those have been removed, and children today maybe don’t have the same physical dangers that we had when we were growing up.

But this morning I want to talk to you about dangers and being aware of dangers, but we’re not so concerned. Maybe we should be, and parents, you need to be concerned about physical dangers and try to make your children to be smarter children than you were when you were a kid. But this morning I want to talk to you about spiritual dangers. Dangers to our soul.

But godliness, and so he was contrasting there the idea of physical versus spiritual. Physical is good. You need to be aware of physical dangers and even physical exercise, he says, was good, but spiritual exercise, exercising ourselves to godliness was far more important. And so let’s talk about some dangers, but some spiritual dangers that we face. If you’re a parent this morning, and maybe this will be a good lesson for you to focus on some other dangers your children need to be looking out for. But if you’re not a parent, or if you’re like me, your parenting days are pretty much over and behind you, then you can make an application to yourself. Here are still some dangers that I face that I need to be aware of.

1. Informational Dangers: Doctrine

Some dangers that will threaten my spirituality. The first danger that we need to be aware of is the idea of informational dangers. Doctrine. Let’s turn with me, if you will. We’re just going to look at some very basic passages of scripture here, but they’re going to be, I think, helpful for us in establishing these dangers. Let’s go to a very familiar text in 2 Timothy chapter 3. 2 Timothy chapter 3, and you could probably quote this one from memory. 2 Timothy chapter 3, verse 16, you remember says, all scripture, all scripture is given by inspiration of God and is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God may be complete, thoroughly equipped for every good work. Scripture, Timothy.

As a man of God, a servant of God, a preacher of the gospel. It’s all about the scripture. The scripture is what’s profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction in righteousness’ sake. And so we face today doctrinal or informational dangers. We live in a world unprecedented in history. Our access to information. It’s literally at our fingertips. Are you old enough to remember these conversations that no longer happen? A conversation that might go something like this. Who was that in that movie? You know, I don’t remember. Me neither. Those conversations don’t happen like that anymore, do they? Or they don’t end that way. They may start that way. Who was in that movie? I don’t remember. And then we reach in our pocket. And we go, oh, that’s who it was.

Used to, we just, you went to bed just not knowing stuff. But now we are inundated with information. And I have to admit that’s good. I like that. I like being able to lay my pillow on the head and then know I know everything. I don’t have to let that run through my mind that I don’t know, and I may never know that. And so there’s good to that, but there’s also dangers. Can we be aware and admit that? That flood of information is dangerous in a few ways. Number one is it’s so much harder for us to just have quiet time. That’s one reason I like our five-minute meditation here. Not just because it gives you an opportunity to go to the bathroom, but because it does give us a time to just be quiet in our thoughts with God in the Word of God.

But also that flood of information would be far better if it was just all good information. But a lot of it’s just garbage. So we need to be careful what floods our minds and the information that we feed it. Now, I’m not here talking about banning books and censoring information, and I’m not even talking about that our faith should not be challenged. It should be. But there’s something to be said for what we put in. What’s the old computer saying? Garbage in, garbage out. And there’s something to be said for doctrinal purity. Again, that does not mean that there’s no room for religious debate and for challenging our faith and saying, is that really what you believe and what your church teaches? Is that really the truth of God’s word?

But we do need to be careful that the doctrine that we’re teaching, that’s one reason our shepherds have been instructed, entrusted by God with the primary role of shepherds, elders in the local church, is to keep out those wolves, to keep out that false doctrine. Because it matters. Look with me in the book of Matthew, chapter 5. Jesus makes a curious statement. And it’s really one of the few difficult statements that Jesus would make in the Sermon on the Mount. Much of what he preached that day is fairly simple and easy for us to understand. But but this one gives us a little pause. In Matthew chapter 5.

Excuse me, Matthew chapter 6. Matthew chapter 6, verse 22. Matthew 6, still the Sermon on the Mount. I was right there. Matthew 6, verse 22 says, the lamp of the body is the eye. If there, therefore, if your eye is good, your whole body will be full of light. But if your eye is bad, your whole body will be full of darkness. If therefore the light that is in you is darkness, how great is that darkness? I’m not sure that I completely understand all our Lord was saying there. But he is saying that the light, the eye is the source of that light that comes in. And if that light is good or singular, then there’s some benefit of that. And so it seems to me that one thing our Lord may be saying is that our eyes, and could we include our ears there, is where we receive things.

2. Behavioral Dangers

And as long as it’s that which is good, then we will be benefited from it. But if it’s bad, or even in this context, if it’s two different sources, if it’s the world and God, then there’s going to be that darkness, that confusion, that blurriness. And so the idea of what we put before our eyes or before our ears, what comes into our being is going to be important. And there’s some dangers to our soul in that. And so we need to be careful. What’s that little song? Be careful, little eyes, what you see. Be careful, old eyes, what you see, and what you hear. Because there’s informational or doctrinal dangers. There are certainly behavioral dangers, contrary to what the world and Satan would have us to believe.

And aren’t we so thankful for our brother Andrew Roberts, who came a couple weeks ago and taught us about or reminded us about the devil, the devil that we sometimes don’t know and need to be aware of, the lies that he tells. And one of the lies the devil tells us, and is wanted to convince our world that our behavior doesn’t matter. You can do whatever you want. But that’s a danger to our soul. God cares about our conduct. He cares about what we do and who we are. I’m turning in the book of Acts, chapter 3. Acts chapter 3 will introduce us or reintroduce us to a biblical concept. And a biblical word that I want us to contemplate this morning. Acts chapter 3, actually, two biblical words.

Acts chapter 3, verse 19, Peter’s sermon on repentance says this. Repent, therefore, and be converted, that your sins may be blotted out, so that the times of refreshing may come from the presence of the Lord. Repent and be converted. Those are two overlapping words. If you think about it, the word repent literally means just to change the mind. Now, it obviously is going to result in a change of behavior, but it just means a change. Repent and be converted. Well, what does converted mean? Well, converted means change, doesn’t it? I think of converted in the secular world, and when I think of the word conversion or converted, two different things come to mind. Converting electricity. Or converting money. If you’ve ever gone overseas, you’ve had to take your American dollars and go to some counter at the airport or go to the bank and have it converted into pesos or rupees or lira, depending on wherever you are.

You’re changing that money from one currency to another. The word converted just means change. And so Peter says, change and be changed. Change your mind and be converted. Conversion is that biblical Christian concept. And if you think about it, two conversions take place when we become a child of God. One is instantaneous and powerful. It’s a change of status. We were lost. Now we’re found. We’re dead. We’ve been made alive. We’re saved. God makes that conversion. He changes our status. And because of the power of God, he can do so instantly and powerfully. But when we become a Christian, another conversion takes place. That’s the conversion he’s talking about here. He doesn’t say repent and be converted, repent and change your status from lost to saved.

That’s not the conversion because that’s what God does. Be converted here, he’s talking about change your behavior. And because we’re not God, and we’re not as powerful. That’s a more difficult conversion. And maybe a gradual rather than an instant conversion. And it’s going to be a continuous conversion and struggle as we grow and we develop new and better habits. And as we shed those old worldly habits and sin, we do what the Hebrew writer said, looking unto Jesus, we cast aside the sin that so easily besets us. And I don’t think the biblical concept is that when I become a Christian, I just picked all of that sin and just threw it aside. That’s not how it happened for me. It happened for me, I cast one aside.

And then I had to work on that other one. And then there was another one that I needed to cast aside. And one of those that I threw aside snuck up and jumped back on me, and I had to knock it off again. And there’s that process of conversion that’s a constant growing and working. Because there’s behavioral dangers. It matters.

3. Emotional Attitude Dangers

We face behavioral dangers, but we also face what we might call emotional attitude dangers. Behavior matters, yes. But God has never wanted marionettes. Someone who’s just controlled by something that gives no thought and does the right movements and maybe some kind of through ventriloquism even says the right words, but there’s no true meaning or heart behind it. God has always been concerned with the heart. I’ve used this illustration before, so please forgive me and certainly please forgive me for the timing of this illustration. But when it comes to paying your income taxes, have you done that running out of time? Or have you filed an extension, which is what I usually do? But when it comes to filing your income taxes, you remember me making this illustration before?

The IRS wants your money. They don’t want your love.

They don’t care. In fact, you could put that in the memo that says, I object. You’re wasting my money. You’re taking too much of my money. And you know what they’re going to do with that check? They’re going to process that and take that money just like if you put little heart. All they want is obedience, conformity. They don’t demand your heart, your love, and a good attitude. God’s not the IRS. Does God make demands of us? Yes. Does he want us to fulfill certain obligations? Yes. But is he going to accept a check without any feeling and attitude behind it? If you think so, then you don’t know God. God has always wanted the heart of his people.

And the Proverb writer says in Proverbs 23 and verse 7, as a man thinks in his heart, so is he. Jesus would say of the heart, out of the abundance of the heart, the mouth speaketh. And I fear that in my teaching and preaching, I’ve sometimes given the wrong impression, and maybe just got it wrong myself, where I’ve put the proverbial cart before the horse and preached conformity, preached obedience and doing the right thing, which are all biblical. We talked about behavior, doctrinal importance, but didn’t start with the attitude. As the heart thinketh, so it is.

And your heart right and your love right. And then will you say, God, I love you. I’m in awe of you. Tell me what to do, and I’ll do it. Then the behavior comes. And it comes much easier. The apostle said his commandments, speaking of God, his commandments are not burdensome. Have you read your Bible? Some of them are. And so, how does he say they’re not burdensome? They’re not burdensome because they come from a place of love. We started with the raising of hands of who are parents. And I hope and I’m confident that this is the case, that everybody who raised their hand can think of the sacrifices they’ve made for their children, the things they’ve done, the money they’ve spent, the sacrifices, the pain, the tears, the sweat, and everything you’ve done for your children.

But you’d do it again, wouldn’t you? Because you love them. And so his commands are not burdensome because our attitude is right. And so here’s the gut check. If you’re having trouble with informational dangers or behavioral dangers or with attitudinal dangers, if his commandments are burdensome to you, if you find it difficult to serve and to do those things and to refrain from those kind of things, then I challenge you to get closer to God. To love him more. To feel a greater sense of awe in who he is and what he has done and will do for you. And then, and only then will you experience another conversion, a change in attitude that says, you know what? His commands are not burdensome. I can do that.

Conclusion

I can do without that. And all of a sudden, it’s so much easier. Because I love him. It’s a dangerous world. It’s a dangerous world. Those of us who are older will leave our children. But hopefully, and again, I trust that through your teaching and your love and your instruction, you’ll leave them prepared, to be aware of the dangers that they face. And I know that you will be aware and prepared for the dangers that you face in this difficult world. May God help us all as parents and as individuals to make sure that the information that comes through our eyes and our ears is that which is profitable for doctrine, for reproof, for instruction and righteousness’ sake, that our behavior will be molded by the image of God, and that our attitude will always be one of tremendous awe and love.

Would you come to Christ this morning? Would you give your heart to Him? And once you make that decision, whatever command, whatever step of obedience is asked of you, you will willingly do. Can we help you in that? To help us all together to circle the wagons, to guard against the danger that we face. If we can help you in rendering obedience to the gospel this morning or help you in any way, let it be known right now as we stand and sing.