02/03/13 “Integrity Like a Lion” (Chad Hovind)

Here’s the link to the message I gave about Integrity of a Lion.

We need to see temptation for what it is. The only way to resist temptation is to see it for what it is.   Temptation always promises sweetness, but delivers death.  And temptation will go with us wherever we go… and affect the people we love.  Samson brought the honey with him to give to his friends, and family too.   Samson’s parents had certain restrictions IF they had touched something dead… but they hadn’t been told where this honey came from. Now Samson’s decisions affected others.  Made others unclean. This is how temptation works. It says, “This Won’t hurt, tastes good” but ends with “Hurts you, and spreads death to those you love.”

• Pornography is honey in a dead  carcass… Little do you know it will spread death into your marriage and affect your intimate life later… but it does.
• Lying is a honey in a dead carcass.. You start lying and end up hurting people who can no longer trust you later.
• ANger promises the Sweetness of “getting it off your chest” and drops death into the eyes of your spouse, your children, or your friends.
• Addiction of any kind (alcohol, drugs, shopping, sex) promise sweetness (deliverance and escape from your current feelings and experiences), but drops death into your family that watch you pass out when you are drunk, hurt, or neglect the people you say you care about.

As a pastor, I hear these stories constantly.   A friend told us about his wife’s addiction to alcohol.  He’d come home and she’s passed out on the floor, the kids scared to death as they were all under 7 years old.  Stove was wide open and on… and this husband was trying to help his wife and protect his kids… She thought he was overreacting… He knew a dead carcass was in their home.       

Another staff member was leading a divorce recovering group. A man in his 50’s came into the group. He wasn’t divorced yet, but had taken up a relationship with his secretary.  He was telling the group how excited he was that God had brought a new relationship into his life.   The leader was shocked that this guy had no idea that he was telling a group of women who had lost their husbands to this very temptation how he thought God was in this new relationship.    This guy had cheated on his wife with his secretary who had willingly slept with a married guy and it tasted like honey.    All the while, neither of them saw the dead  carcass that was about to contaminate their families, their conscience, and their future. … They just the honey… And yet this guy was surrounded by people who had been hurt by the decay of death when someone else did the same thing.     This is how temptation works. It’s Honey in a Dead Carcass.  It always affected the people you love.

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