2 Peter 1:1-4 – Don’t Sin Away Your Blessings – Bible study

2Peter 1:1-4 Dont Sin Away Your Blessings Arent you glad that you are saved? Isnt salvation grand? Do you realize that God wants us to have great blessings in Christ Jesus because we are saved? It is true. God has given to us great blessings because we are His children. Romans 8:32 He that spared not his own Son, but delivered him up for us all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all things? 1 Corinthians 3:21 …For all things are yours; 1. No one has gotten all the blessings that God can give. a. There are too many of them and God is too big. b. We get the blessings we need to be what God wants us to be. 2. Just because we get a particular blessing, it doesnt mean that we desired it. Just because we dont get a particular blessing doesnt mean that we didnt desire it. a. God gives some of His children some blessings. (1) Some have more wealth. (2) Some have more health. (3) Some are business owners, or supervisors, or leaders. (4) Some are born in American. b. God gives some of His children fewer blessings. (1) Some have less wealth. (2) Some have worse health. (3) Some are workers, or unemployed, or servants. (4) Some are born in third world countries. c. The rich are necessarily rich because they deserved. The poor are necessarily poor because they deserved. 3. No matter how many blessings we have, we can sin them away. a. The older I get, the more I realize how much of the heartache in life is a direct result of our own sinfulness. b. It is that way both to the lost and to the saved. I. The blessing of sanity was sinned away by Nebuchadnezzar. A. \#Dan 4:1\ 1. \#Dan 4:4-5\ – Nebuchadnezzar has had a problem. In a dream, a great tree – the greatest – is cut down by an angelic being. He called Daniel to interpret. 2. \#Dan 4:24-27\ Daniel tells Nebuchadnezzar to either quit sinning or he will be like an animal. Nebuchadnezzar tries but sinners cant quit sinning just because they want to. . \#Dan 4:28-33\ So Nebuchadnezzar went mad for 7 years. 5. Nebuchadnezzars insanity was a direct result of his behavior before God. B. All insanity is not the result of sin. 1. There is a realm of mental instability that I have no understanding over at all. That is the physical and chemical aspects. a. The brain is a physical organ and subject to physical problems. (1) Defect (2) Damage (3) Disease b. The brain works off of chemical principals and the chemicals can get out of balance. 2. But we are also spiritual beings. a. Spiritual forces do control our thinking processes. b. There was a spiritual reason for Nebuchadnezzars insanity. C. After you eliminate the physical and chemical reasons for mental problems, you must consider the spiritual. John 14:27 Peace I leave with you, my peace I give unto you: not as the world giveth, give I unto you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. 2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind. D. Christians, there are ways to sin away your sanity: 1. By dabbling in the occult. a. The New Testament gives us many accounts of those who were demon possessed. b. I do not know that all demon-possessed people were involved in the occult. c. But I would say that demons attack the mind. 2. By sin. a. Any sin can lead to mental instability. (1) Sometimes the sin itself destroys the mind (drugs). (2) Sometimes the guilt of the sin destroys the mind. b. As a rule, the deeper into sin you go, the more damage you can do to the mind. c. Forgiveness and repentance are the best tools to use to help a mind damaged by sin. 3. By not conquering your mind. a. The human mind is like a smart pet. (1) It can be trained. (2) The mind can be trained to think properly and the mind can be trained to think improperly. (3) Do not allow yourself or your loved ones to dwell too long on the wrong things. b. Three areas that I have seen been walk so far down that they had difficulty getting back. (1) Bitterness (2) Worry (3) Fear II. Financial blessings were sinned away by Israel. Haggai 1:7 Thus saith the LORD of hosts; Consider your ways. 8 Go up to the mountain, and bring wood, and build the house; and I will take pleasure in it, and I will be glorified, saith the LORD. 9 Ye looked for much, and, lo, it came to little; and when ye brought it home, I did blow upon it. Why? saith the LORD of hosts. Because of mine house that is waste, and ye run every man unto his own house. 10 Therefore the heaven over you is stayed from dew, and the earth is stayed from her fruit. 11 And I called for a drought upon the land, and upon the mountains, and upon the corn, and upon the new wine, and upon the oil, and upon that which the ground bringeth forth, and upon men, and upon cattle, and upon all the labour of the hands. A. Israel had neglected caring for Gods things. Now God was blowing their money away. 1. Having money isnt JUST a skill or a right. 2. It is also a blessing from God. B. We all know of people who are just as wicked as the devil and have money. 1. These people prove that there are more ways to get money than Gods way. 2. If you want to sin your way to wealth, thats up to you. a. Dirty money doesn’t last. b. Dirty money doesn’t feel good. c. Dirty money has interest compounded eternally. C. Im preaching to people who want to have both a measure of wealth and Gods favor. 1. God does give and has given many of us money as an earthly blessing. 2. Just as God has given it, God can remove it. D. Why would He? 1. God expects His people to give to His work. Mal 3:8 Will a man rob God? Yet ye have robbed me. But ye say, Wherein have we robbed thee? In tithes and offerings. 9 Ye are cursed with a curse: for ye have robbed me, even this whole nation. 10 Bring ye all the tithes into the storehouse, that there may be meat in mine house, and prove me now herewith, saith the LORD of hosts, if I will not open you the windows of heaven, and pour you out a blessing, that there shall not be room enough to receive it. 11 And I will rebuke the devourer for your sakes, and he shall not destroy the fruits of your ground; neither shall your vine cast her fruit before the time in the field, saith the LORD of hosts. 12 And all nations shall call you blessed: for ye shall be a delightsome land, saith the LORD of hosts. a. God commands tithes and offerings be brought into the storehouse. b. The definition of the storehouse is the treasury used for caring for Gods work. c. Today, that would be the church. 2. God expects us to work for our money. 2 Thessalonians 3:10 For even when we were with you, this we commanded you, that if any would not work, neither should he eat. 3. God expects us to be an instrument of blessing with our money. Proberbs 11:24 There is that scattereth, and yet increaseth; and there is that withholdeth more than is meet, but it tendeth to poverty. 25 The liberal soul shall be made fat: and he that watereth shall be watered also himself. 4. God expects us to be wise with our money. (The best way to be wise is to follow Gods principals.) Matt 7:24 Therefore whosoever heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them, I will liken him unto a wise man, which built his house upon a rock: 25 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell not: for it was founded upon a rock. 26 And every one that heareth these sayings of mine, and doeth them not, shall be likened unto a foolish man, which built his house upon the sand: 27 And the rain descended, and the floods came, and the winds blew, and beat upon that house; and it fell: and great was the fall of it. III. David sinned away his children. \#2Sam 12:7-8, 11\ 2Sam 12:7 And Nathan said to David, Thou art the man. Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, I anointed thee king over Israel, and I delivered thee out of the hand of Saul; 8 And I gave thee thy masters house, and thy masters wives into thy bosom, and gave thee the house of Israel and of Judah; and if that had been too little, I would moreover have given unto thee such and such things. A. David was one of the most blessed people in history. 1. Went from shepherd to soldier to sovereign. 2. He was a military giant – never losing, extending Israels boarders, and eventually having peace on all sides. 3. Personally – Rich, talented, the great psalmist, walked with God, had peace, prestige, and power. 4. God told him that if he wanted anything else, all he had to do was ask. B. Then David sinned with Bathsheba. 1. In committing that sin, David committed about every other sin you can name. 2. betrayal, drunkenness, deceit, adultery, even murder. C. From then on, a sword came into his house which afflicted his children. 2Sam 12:11 Thus saith the LORD, Behold, I will raise up evil against thee out of thine own house 1. One son raped a half-sister. 2. One son killed a half-brother. 3. One son stole the kingdom and tried to kill David, himself being killed. 4. Another son tried to steal the kingdom at Davids death and was killed by Solomon. D. Children are often the first blessing given and most common blessing removed. 1. God plainly tells us that He will visit the sins of the parents on to the children. Deut 5:9 Thou shalt not bow down thyself unto them, nor serve them: for I the LORD thy God am a jealous God, visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation of them that hate me, 2. Issac and Rebecca endured much grief through their children for showing favoritism. 3. Eli lost his sons altogether for refusing to discipline them. E. As a parent, I would rather lose every other blessing than my children. 1. Children are given to be a blessing to the parents in this life. 2. Even more, our children have eternal souls. 3. Unfortunately, the option of claiming a godly seed is not the call of the rebellious sinner. IV. Israel sinned away its national prominence and freedom. 2Kings 25:1 And it came to pass in the ninth year of his reign, in the tenth month, in the tenth day of the month, that Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon came, he, and all his host, against Jerusalem, and pitched against it; and they built forts against it round about. 2 And the city was besieged unto the eleventh year of king Zedekiah. 3 And on the ninth day of the fourth month the famine prevailed in the city, and there was no bread for the people of the land. 4 And the city was broken up, and all the men of war fled by night by the way of the gate between two walls, which is by the kings garden: (now the Chaldees were against the city round about:) and the king went the way toward the plain. 5 And the army of the Chaldees pursued after the king, and overtook him in the plains of Jericho: and all his army were scattered from him. 6 So they took the king, and brought him up to the king of Babylon to Riblah; and they gave judgment upon him. 7 And they slew the sons of Zedekiah before his eyes, and put out the eyes of Zedekiah, and bound him with fetters of brass, and carried him to Babylon. 8 And in the fifth month, on the seventh day of the month, which is the nineteenth year of king Nebuchadnezzar king of Babylon, came Nebuzaradan, captain of the guard, a servant of the king of Babylon, unto Jerusalem: 9 And he burnt the house of the LORD, and the kings house, and all the houses of Jerusalem, and every great mans house burnt he with fire. 10 And all the army of the Chaldees, that were with the captain of the guard, brake down the walls of Jerusalem round about. 11 Now the rest of the people that were left in the city, and the fugitives that fell away to the king of Babylon, with the remnant of the multitude, did Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard carry away. 12 But the captain of the guard left of the poor of the land to be vinedressers and husbandmen. A. Here is something that America thinks could never happen to it. It was something that Israel thought could never happen to it either. B. This is the demise of what was once the greatest country in the world. 1. This is the end but the end did come this fast. 2. It happened slowly over many years. 3. The freedom of the nation was not the first to go. 4. It was the last. C. The order the great nation fell: 1. fear of God 2. obedience to God 3. the presence of God 4. understanding 5. purity and morality 6. Wealth 7. military power and might 8. freedom d. America is just about to lose 7-8. 1. We may not fall the day we lose them. Israel did not. 2. But we will fall. We see it from the individual, to the home, to the nation. You can sin away your blessings. And no matter how few you think your blessings are, there is always another one you can sin away. By the same token, you can always get another one. Repent of sin Surrender to God Live a holy, obedient life