How Far is Too Far? Part 1

How Far is Too Far? Part 1

By Pastor Gary Wayne

Text: 2 Corinthians 11:3-4, 1 Corinthians 6:12
1Co 6:12 "Everything is permissible for me"-- but not everything is beneficial. "Everything is permissible for me"-- but I will not be mastered by anything.” NIV

A question I want to work towards an answer for us, is “How Far Is Too Far?” How far can I go before something become sin?
What’s the standard – How do you know how far you can go?
It’s one of the most asked questions – How far can I go before its sin?

Guess What? I will never find out when I ask the question that way.
It’s like asking, how bad can I be and still go to heaven, or how good do I have to be to just barely get in?
When I ask this question this way, I won’t hear an answer, BUT if I ask “God, what’s going to glorify You in this?” I will hear His voice every time!

Recently I read some statistics released by Dr. George Barna. (The founder of a research firm specializing in studying the religious beliefs and behavior of Americans)
Today nearly 92% of Americans today embrace Syncretism = a customized blend of philosophies of life pieced together for their own satisfaction.
The typical American adult adopts beliefs and behaviors from an average of nine distinct worldviews / religions.
Philosophies and practices that feel good, work for them, or seem popular in order to help them make choices throughout the day. A hodge-podge of worldview options. Determining right from wrong is based on reason and emotions.

Situation ethics. (Contextualism) The right thing to do depends on the situation.

Too often, this overall belief system flavors what people who claim to follow Jesus believe and practice.
Then when someone explains God’s Word that we hold as the foundation for what we believe, many reject sound teaching because they don’t want the church telling what to do.

I relate to that! A major problem has been when the church preaches someone’s personal convictions as God’s standard for sin.
Name something.
2 Cor.11:3-4
Much of this message has been bouncing around in my heart with that same valid fear for us.
So how do we know God’s standard for sin? How far is too far?

Here is a truth for everyone in this room.
The world we live in assaults our mental life every day.
It’s a battle for my mind – a battle for what I believe to be true.
Every time we watch TV, social media, etc – we are being bombarded with competing narratives of what truth is.

Scripture warns us that we live in a battle for truth.
And any time I compromise to live in a way that God says not to, I open up my life to the enemy.
The enemy watches for an opportunity to take legal advantage to come into my life to steal, kill, and destroy.

When culture tells you over & over something is ok, we have a tendency to water down what I think is “ok” in activity.
So I go to church, read my bible, yet live with things in my life that gives the enemy legal right to harass me.
Then wonder, “why is this God stuff not working?”

What is the answer we need for the question, “How far is too far?”
I start by asking: “God, what’s going to glorify You in this?

Rom.12: 2 tells us we can be “transformed by the renewing of our minds.”

Am I willing to bring what I currently believe about something into the light of His opinion / Lordship, about? Let His truth renew my mind.

Would you consider consecrating your mental thought process to God?
To consecrate something means to give it to God, to present it to Him to be especially His.
When we consecrate something to Jesus it allows those things to come under His protection and provision.
We truly want all our life – our mental life in all its fullness – to be under the influence of the Spirit of God, governed by the Spirit.

Let’s consecrate our mind and our mental life to God:
Father I consecrate my mind to You.
I give You my thoughts, my focus, and attention.
I give you my memory and recall, my understanding and imagination.
I consecrate to you my interpretation of events in my life.
Holy Spirit target places I need to renew Your truth in me.