Don't Sin... This Time
Godliness is not one choice, but a series of choices.
Jim smoked two packs a day for 37 years.
He rolled out of bed this morning and decided he was done. He did not immediately step onto the back porch for his morning cigarette.
Question: Has Jim quit smoking?
Let me argue yes… and no.
Yes, Jim has taken the first - some would argue the hardest - step towards quitting. So, why do I say no, he hasn’t quit smoking yet? Because Jim usually has a post-breakfast cigarette. And an “on the way to work” cigarette (or three). He has a “before I start work” cig and a “first task completed, time for a break” cig and a “before I start my second task” cig… and so on…
And Jim is going to have a choice at each of those intervals.
I love Paul’s approach to holiness…
It flows through all his letters. Follow the line of reasoning:
Philippians 3, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on to make it my own, because Christ Jesus has made me his own.”
Phil. 3, “Brothers, join in imitating me, and keep your eyes on those who walk according to the example you have in us…”
1 Corinthians 11, “Be imitators of me, as I am of Christ.”
1 Timothy 4, “Rather train yourself for Godliness… Command and teach these things. Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example [in other words, let them imitate you imitating me imitating Christ]… Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.”
Did you catch it? Progress. Not perfection. Remember, Paul isn’t there either, he hasn’t arrived on the mountaintop of Godliness.
“But I press on…” So, Timothy, inspire the believers to imitate you imitating me in pressing on towards the goal, as I strive to imitate Christ, who did it perfectly.
I have talked about this before - what I call “the inevitable hypocrisy of Christianity” - but there’s a different piece that has been on the front of my mind lately. Paul, and Timothy by extension, and Jim or any of us by further extension, do not have a certain threshold before we can be used by God.
Let’s go back to Jim…
Jim didn’t smoke Monday. He’s cranky, and he’s had six cups of coffee. But no cigarettes.
Jim didn’t smoke Tuesday, until a particularly antagonizing meeting with his boss and a client. Jim had a cigarette with lunch. He had two more after work, but recommitted that night and didn’t smoke again until Wednesday night.
He went out with friends and had one, socially.
Nothing Thursday or Friday, before two more at a barbecue with friends on Saturday.
Does this pattern sound familiar?
When can Jim say he quit smoking? [Insert your own sin for “smoking.” Gossip, lust, lying, misusing the Lord’s name, etc.] When is he qualified to help others who are trying to quit? How about you? When are you qualified to help others quit sinning?
The fact remains, God uses sinners exclusively.
Notice the example earlier, Paul doesn’t tell James to achieve Godliness and then command and teach others and set an example. He tells him to train for Godliness, to command and teach, and then keep practicing…
I love sports, especially as an example for the endless pursuit of perfection…
I don’t think anyone would argue that Hall of Fame quarterback Kurt Warner is qualified to coach kids playing football. Kurt Warner also threw 128 interceptions and over 1,400 incomplete passes.
There’s a regular at our local coffee shop who would tell you he’s an alcoholic. He’s 25 years sober, but like Jim, every day, he has fifteen decisions to stay on that track.
He drives past three bars on his way to work. He has flexible office hours, where he could sneak away for a drink. Fifteen windows, detours, chances… and choices. Jim quitting smoking isn’t waking up one day and deciding to quit smoking. It’s a battle, and it’s a dozen moments per day that he’s going to want a cigarette.
What if Jim just doesn’t smoke this time?
He doesn’t have to win the lunch break battle before breakfast. He has to win the pre-breakfast battle before breakfast. This is the training for Godliness, as Paul says in 1 Timothy 4, the practicing and immersing yourself.
Former Navy SEAL David Goggins calls it the 1-Second Decision [strong language warning].
Essentially, motivation won’t get you through the battle. Goggins talks about going through Hell Week in training, being miserable, cold and wet and tired. The instructors sit by a fire with hot chocolate and donuts, inviting anyone who wants to quit to join them.
And it’s easy to think, “Man, we’re just getting started. It’s Monday, it’s Tuesday, we have 100+ hours left of this [garbage].” Those are the mindsets that quit. The minds that get through are thinking, “Not yet, not right now. I can get through this precise moment, this experience. I’ll worry about the next one then.”
When I was in boot camp - nothing like Navy SEAL Hell Week, but stay with me - first phase, we used to encourage each other to go Sunday-to-Sunday, because on Sunday we got to go to church and get away from the drill instructors and the constant marching and yelling and pushups and pull-ups.
Phase Two, we would go day-to-day. It was more intense, more demanding mentally and physically and if we could get to lights-out, it was a success.
Third Phase, we went meal-to-meal.
If I can just survive, endure, lunch is coming. Dinner is coming…
Jim’s decision and enthusiasm to quit smoking won’t get him through lunch of his first day. He’s going to have a million one-second decisions. And each one is a chance.
That brings us all the way back to the title for this post, “Don’t Sin… This Time.”
Godliness is not a choice, but a series of choices. Don’t be discouraged because you messed up last time. Don’t let Satan tell you, “Well, that’s it. You’re done. God can’t use you.”
The Bible is full of God using wildly imperfect people, who continued messing up regularly even while God was using them. Read the stories of Abraham, Moses, David, Gideon, Solomon, Elijah, Peter and Paul…
Philippians 3, “Not that I have already obtained this or am already perfect, but I press on…”
1 Timothy 4, “Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress.”
What if, next time you hear gossip, you decide not to repeat it? Next time a good looking guy or girl walks by, you don’t take a second look.
What if you tell your boss or spouse or child the truth next time?
I actually don’t care what you did last time. Satan throws those in our faces to blind us to the next opportunity.
So, Jim had a cigarette over lunch. Can’t take it back; but it doesn’t mean he has to have one during his afternoon break. It doesn’t have any impact on his next decision, unless he lets it. It doesn’t mean his attempt to quit is lost. He is not back to square one. It also doesn’t mean he can’t encourage someone else trying to quit.
Jesus told eleven very imperfect people, very sinful, prideful, immature people to go into all the world and make disciples of all nations. And He did it because, as He said right before that, all authority is His.
It wasn’t up to them to be great, but simply to go and do their best, and trust Christ to handle it. To press on, to train for Godliness to set the believers an example and then keep training… so that the world would see [not their perfection but] their progress.
And what does progress mean?
It means on a day last month, I had 70 chances to sin (probably a low estimate), and I sinned 30 times (definitely a low estimate).
That’s a 57% success rate.
And the next day, let’s say I hit 60%. And then, rough day, 30%.
And over the course of last month, I average not sinning on 54% of my chances.
I hope that a year later, I’d be at 55% or 57%.
And no, there’s no way to measure it truly, and no, most people won’t notice if you’re sinning 2% less next year…
But I bet the people close to you will notice, five years from now, if you are swearing less, bad mouthing your boss or spouse less, if you stop joining in their social drinking and lusting and lying when it’s convenient.
I bet they wonder what has changed… not after an emotional, hands and knees recommitment and declaration, but after a million one-second decisions.
Paul closes the chapter, “Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.”
There’s no threshold to hit before God will use you. He will use your progress.
Let me close with one of my favorite story arcs in scripture…
As a writer, I love looking at a character beginning to end. David Paymer’s character in Oceans 13. Ben Affleck's portrayal of Phil Knight in AIR…
Progress.
My second favorite example is Peter, between Matthew 8 and 14.
In Matthew 8 (and Mark 4), we see the disciples caught in a boat in a storm, and Jesus asleep. Mark 4 captures the disciples waking Jesus up and specifically asking, “Teacher, do you not care that we are perishing?”
Fast forward to Matthew 14, again the disciples are caught in a boat in a storm. Jesus comes along, walking on the water, and notice Peter’s words this time, “Lord, if it is you, command me to come to you on the water.”
“Don’t you care?!” to “I’ll get out of the boat.”
Progress.
But my favorite is Sarah, Abraham’s wife, between Genesis 18 and Hebrews 11.
Angels visit Abraham to tell him God’s plan. You’re going to have a son, and he’s going to become a great nation, God’s nation, and one of his kid’s will be king forever. Meanwhile Abraham and Sarah were very old and had been unable to have children. So Sarah, eavesdropping in the tent, laughs to herself…
The Lord said to Abraham, “Why did Sarah laugh and say, ‘Shall I indeed bear a child, now that I am old?’ Is anything too hard for the Lord? At the appointed time I will return to you, about this time next year, and Sarah shall have a son.” But Sarah denied it, saying, “I did not laugh,” for she was afraid. He said, “No, but you did laugh.”
So she laughed, and then she lied.
Fast forward though. They did have a son. He did become a great nation, God’s people, and that son had a great, great grandchild named Jesus.
We call Hebrews 11 “the Hall of Faith,” because it recounts many of the great Bible heroes who stepped out in faith and were used by God to do amazing things. Guess who makes the list?
By faith Sarah herself received power to conceive, even when she was past the age, since she considered him faithful who had promised.
Not only did God use Sarah despite her doubts, but His word credits her faith, despite her doubts. That laugh didn’t cost her her part in God’s plan. She wasn’t suddenly useless to Him, discarded for someone else. God exclusively uses imperfect people.
Normally, at the end, I’d link to one of my other posts, with some tie-in to keep you here…
But I recently heard this sermon about “doubting” Thomas… and it’s perfect for this concept…