What's your excuse for not doing what you know you should be doing? What must every Christian do in order to see where he or she is blind to excuses?
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There's a show on television that's called Intervention. Perhaps you've seen it. I believe it's the A & E network that it's on. It's a show that can really tug on your heart strings. The premise is that they will take an addict and they will follow him around. The addiction can be drug addiction, could be alcohol, could be gambling, could be overeating; and it's under the guise that they are being filmed in a documentary. Unbeknown to the individual, they will be facing their family by the end of the program. They will be facing them for an intervention. I assume that most of you know what an intervention is. { It is } when the family and friends of the close person to them who has an addiction sits the person down, gets them in a room, essentially, in the case of the television show, in most cases, they'll read, perhaps, a letter that is very heartfelt, as they pour out their heart, trying to reach out and help this addict kick the addiction. And the way, of course, they do it, then, is to get them to go with an intervention expert to a clinic and try to get, solve from, or get rehab from the condition that they are experiencing.
I watched one recently, again, very poor, sad circumstance where a lady ultimately had lost everything. She was quite well off at one time, but lost everything financially due to her alcohol addiction, including her husband, including her children. The camera would follow her around and she would just mope and cry about her children. It's difficult, honestly, to watch in many ways. It's quite powerful.
The statistics of drug and alcohol addiction in the world are staggering. In this country alone there are multiple millions who go through each day with the sole purpose of feeding their addiction. Now, there can be a variety of reasons as to what brings about someone's addiction, but one thing that every addict has in common is also something that you and I have in common, to a greater or lesser degree, in this room. The reason I know this and can safely say this is because none of us is perfect yet. What every addict has in common and what every human being has in common is the use of excuses. I was interested to hear what Mr. Welch had to say. It really fits hand-in-glove with what I had prepared today as well. It's nice when that happens. I hope you take that as a sign that some prayer has been going together and God has worked that out.
As time passes, hopefully, we grow in this way, that we work hard to avoid making excuses—but we would be less than honest if we didn't agree that whether we are talking about a hard-core drug addict or whether we are talking about something as simple as simple procrastination, each makes excuses.
Today's sermon title is, "I'm not hurting anyone but myself." Just over a week ago we came out of the Days of Unleavened Bread, as we have already heard, both this morning and this afternoon. These days picture a time when we're asked and expected to scrutinize where sin may exist in our lives. It seems to me that, as a result of living in the society that we do today that is very quick to pass the buck, very quick to point the finger elsewhere, very quick to cast stones, very quick to pass judgments, it is perhaps more difficult than ever not to fall into the temptation of making excuses. On the other hand, to be completely fair, there's nothing new under the sun, is there? Either way, putting sin out in this environment requires tremendous diligence on our part. I must say, I felt for a very long time that I'm extremely happy that God is so merciful and so patient in working with us.
I believe that it is very important to be clear right up front. Due to mental illness, there are many people who do not currently have the ability to understand what is an excuse and what is not. And so I'd like it to be understood that those are not the cases that we'll be considering today. Rather, as should be the case regularly, we'll take a look into this subject in relation to self. Assuming we have been given God's Holy Spirit or we are yet to be baptized but we at least recognize truth from error and we have full intentions, perhaps, of being baptized, then it's crucial for each of us to respond to what God has given us by making every effort not to succumb to the accepted thinking of man, but rather to the instruction of God. So I'm talking today to anybody that might fit into those categories. It always starts with me, so I'm talking to me.
Some of you have known alcoholics in your life. Others of you may have had to battle alcohol problems. I found a list of common alcohol abuse excuses that I'd like to share with you today; but before I do, I would like to ask each of you to consider these excuses not merely in the narrow world of alcohol, but rather in any arena in life. For example, think of these with your proclivity in mind, be it something as common and simple as procrastination or as serious as pornography, overeating, gambling, or a bad marriage. What is it that you are battling? Please don't write it down; please don't nudge the person next to you. Think of it in your mind.
Here's a partial list of alcohol abuse excuses:
I don't see anything bad happening to me so far.
Look, I can stop anytime I want.
I am who I am.
I'll only do it for a little while.
You know, if I didn't do this, I'd be doing something worse.
My problem is no worse than yours.
Well, we all have to die sometime.
Hey, I don't want to be left out.
You know, it's only a problem if you do it every day.
Now is just simply not a good time to stop.
I don't have a problem.
Nobody's going to tell me what to do.
Everybody else is doing it; why shouldn't I?
And last, but not least...
I'm not hurting anybody but myself.
I have a question for you today. What is your excuse for not doing what you know you should be doing? If you planted something in your mind at the beginning of this list, what's your excuse for not doing it? I asked this question not to be judgmental, but simply knowing human nature and the imperfections of mankind, we all make excuses. If I were to say that Satan is on one end of the spectrum and Jesus Christ is on the other end of the spectrum, would it not be fair to say that we are somewhere in between those two. After all, Satan is the master of excuses, and God is perfect. As such, He does not make excuses.
You know, as we consider this important question—what's your excuse for not doing what you know you should be doing?—let's go ahead and put down a second question as well: What must every Christian do in order to see where he is blind to excuses? So, essentially, we have two questions here. I'll repeat them for you, and these are the two questions that I would like to address in the time that I have today:
What's my excuse for not doing what I know I should be doing? And, secondly, what must I do in order to see where I am blind to excuses?
Beginning with this first question, pick something that we know we should be doing consistently that, for whatever the reason or excuse, we simply haven't been doing it consistently. I'm going to trust that we can all come up with something pretty quickly. Again, I'm going based upon my own experiences here. Being far from perfect, I can come up with some things pretty quickly in my life. I'm going to assume that you can do the same.
Now you have that item in your mind. Now, in all honesty, why is that item on your mind? If you know enough to come up with that item in the first place, with the help of God's word, with the help of God's Spirit, you have the tools to overcome that item. Really! How are we limited? Not by God, that's for sure. Our limitations in overcoming this item are our own doing. You see, one of the greatest hindrances to growth is the quick and easy tendency that we each have to turn to excuses rather than face reality.
Let's go to Genesis, chapter 3, a very common, well known passage. Wonderful place, in many ways, to start when talking about this subject. Here in Genesis 3, of course, we're talking about what took place in the Garden of Eden. Beginning in verse 4, we read:
Gen 3:4-6 – Then the serpent said to the woman, "You will not surely die. For God knows that in the day you eat of it your eyes will be opened, and you will be like God, knowing good and evil." So when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, that it was pleasant to the eyes, and a tree desirable to make one wise, she took of its fruit and ate. She also gave to her husband with her, and he ate.
Of course, that led to their eyes being opened, in verse 7.
Verses 8-13 – And they heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and Adam and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden. Then the Lord God called to Adam and said to him, "Where are you?" So he said, "I heard Your voice in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; and I hid myself." And He said, "Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you that you should not eat?" Then the man said... what? "The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me of the tree, and I ate." And the Lord God said to the woman, "What is this you have done?" The woman said, "The serpent deceived me, and I ate."
This has to be one of the most well-known passages in all the Bible. We all know man's history has been altered as a result, or impacted, shall we say, by the decisions that Adam and Eve made. Rather than do what God told them to do, they disobeyed Him; and following that, rather than deal with their sin, they found it much easier to make an excuse, I suppose, hoping that God would ignore them, or at the very least, be understanding.
I don't know if you've ever thought about it this way or not, but this is the first example in the Bible of someone reaching out, hoping to be met with an enabler, as opposed to one that would call them up short and make them face the music, so to speak.
This brings up an interesting thought, considering the title of today's sermon, "I'm not hurting anyone but myself." Is that actually a true statement? I trust we know the answer to this. On the surface it might seem to be accurate, but contemplate the reality of what normally happens. In this case, both Adam and Eve made excuses, so they were definitely hurting themselves. But they also both were hurting each other in that neither was strong and the right example for the other. How many times do we find ourselves on our knees asking God to help us be the light that we need to be, be the example that He would want us to be, to others around us, to our family, to our coworkers, to our neighbors. When we make excuses, we not only hurt ourselves but others around us, and certainly those we profess to love. You know, when you watch an episode of Intervention, or if you have dealt with this in your own family or know of others that have, {you know that} the people that drug addicts typically hurt the most are the people that they say they love the most, and certainly the people that love them the most, oftentimes stealing from them to feed their addiction, or worse, perhaps even killing them. Well, obviously, they're hurting a lot more than themselves.
We tell our children we love them, then we excuse them or let them off the hook, so to speak, when they display disrespectful behavior to us—because, perhaps, we're just worn down, we're tired, we're frustrated, we had a difficult day...and let's face it, all of us do this at one time or another as parents. Perhaps we don't recognize that it's even disrespectful behavior, we're so numb to what's taking place. In the long run, that hurts not only us as parents, but our children as they grow up being taught one thing and shown something else. Your lips might have said something, but where are the actions that back it up?
I'd like to go to I Samuel, chapter 2, another good example for this message. I Samuel, chapter 2, let's pick up beginning in verse 12:
I Sam. 2:12-17 – Now the sons of Eli were corrupt; they did not know the Lord. And the priests' custom with the people was that when any man offered a sacrifice, the priest's servant would come with a three-pronged fleshhook in his hand while the meat was boiling. Then he would thrust it into the pan, or kettle, or caldron, or pot; and the priest would take for himself all that the fleshhook brought up. So they did in Shiloh to all the Israelites who came there. Also, before they burned the fat, the priest's servant would come and say to the man who sacrificed, "Give meat for roasting to the priest, for he will not take boiled meat from you, but raw." And if the man said to him, "They should really burn the fat first; then you may take as much as your heart desires," he would then answer him, "No, but you must give it now; and if not, I will take it by force." Therefore the sin of the young men was very great before the Lord, for men abhorred the offering of the Lord.
Now, what we're seeing here is that Hophni and Phinehas, Eli's sons, were completely disregarding the offerings for Eli and his family in terms of how they were to be collected, and this caused grievous offense to both faithful men...or, I'm sorry, to faithful men and, yes, to God. But rather than deal with His sons, Eli simply tried what I call, "the begging game." Notice verse 22:
I Sam. 2:22-25 – Now Eli was very old; and he heard everything his sons did to all Israel, and how they lay with the women who assembled at the door of the tabernacle of meeting. So he said to them, "Why do you do such things? For I hear of your evil dealings from all the people. No, my sons! For it is not a good report that I hear. You make the Lord's people transgress. If one man sins against another, God will judge him. But if a man sins against the Lord, who will intercede for him?" Nevertheless they did not heed the voice of their father, because the Lord desired to kill them.
Verses 27-30 – Then a man of God came to Eli and said to him, "Thus says the Lord: 'Did I not clearly reveal Myself to the house of your father when they were in Egypt in Pharaoh's house? Did I not choose him out of all the tribes of Israel to be My priest, to offer upon My altar, to burn incense, and to wear an ephod before Me? And did I not give to the house of your father all the offerings of the children of Israel made by fire? Why do you kick at My sacrifice and My offering which I have commanded in My habitation, and honor your sons more than Me, to make yourselves fat with the best of all the offerings of Israel My people?' Therefore the Lord God of Israel says: 'I said indeed that your house and the house of your father would walk before Me forever.' But now the Lord says: 'Far be it from Me; for those who honor Me I will honor, and those who despise Me shall be lightly esteemed.'"
Continuing down in verses 34-35: "'Now this shall be a sign to you that will come upon your two sons, on Hophni and Phinehas: in one day they shall die, both of them. Then I will raise up for Myself a faithful priest who shall do according to what is in My heart and in My mind. I will build him a sure house, and he shall walk before My anointed forever.'"
I ask you a question: Is it worth taking note of the begging game example here? Did begging work? Essentially, that's really what Eli was doing with his sons. It didn't work, in God's eyes. Eli did not deal with his sons. Instead, he excused them; and it led to their deaths as well as the end of his family's ability to serve as judge or priest.
Chapter 4, verse 17 – So the messenger answered and said, " Israel has fled before the Philistines, and there has been a great slaughter among the people. Also your two sons, Hophni and Phinehas, are dead; and the ark of God has been captured."
Verse 18 goes on to show that Eli also died upon hearing the news. The truth is, fellow family members, that making excuses, allowing excuses, giving excuses, however you want to word it or phrase it, hurts us and it hurts those around us. It is so important for each of us to recognize that God says what He means and He means what He says.
Exodus, chapter 3. Let's take a look at another example. Exodus, chapter 3, once again a familiar story, but I don't know if we've thought about all the various aspects...you know how we read through things and then we peel another layer of the onion back, so to speak, as we go through and read and reread over time. Exodus, chapter 3, in setting up the story here in verse 1:
Ex. 3:1-2 – Now Moses was tending the flock of Jethro his father-in-law, the priest of Midian. And he led the flock to the back of the desert, and came to Horeb, the mountain of God . And the Angel of the Lord appeared to him in a flame of fire from the midst of a bush. So he looked, and behold, the bush was burning with fire, but the bush was not consumed. Every time I read this, I just, my mind kind of runs off on how overwhelming this must have been to actually experience this.
Verses 3-8 – Then Moses said, "I will now turn aside and see this great sight, why the bush does not burn." So when the Lord saw that he turned aside to look, God called to him from the midst of the bush and said, "Moses, Moses!" And he said, "Here I am." Then He said, "Do not draw near this place. Take your sandals off your feet, for the place where you stand is holy ground." Moreover He said, "I am the God of your father—the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob." And Moses hid his face, for he was afraid to look upon God. I would think most of us would probably have a pretty similar reaction, frankly. And the Lord said: "I have surely seen the oppression of My people who are in Egypt , and have heard their cry because of their taskmasters, for I know their sorrows. So I have come down to deliver them out of the hand of the Egyptians, and to bring them up from that land to a good and large land, to a land flowing with milk and honey, to the place of the Canaanites and the Hittites and the Amorites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites..." and every kind of "ite" you can come up with.
Verse 10 – "Come now, therefore, and I will send you to Pharaoh that you may bring My people, the children of Israel , out of Egypt."
All right, now, we see here, very directly, obviously, Moses being told from God—still kind of mind boggling to think of that, isn't it?—from God directly. I don't think any of us has had that experience, where He comes and sits in our living room and talks to us, or through any burning bushes; but this was very direct from God, that He was going to intervene in the Israelites' lives and remove them from captivity and take them to a land flowing with milk and honey. Not only was He going to intervene, but Moses himself was going to be the tool by which God would do this. Now, if you think about this, it seems to me that many people would probably respond as Moses did.
Verse 11 – But Moses said to God, "Who am I that I should go to Pharaoh, and that I should bring the children of Israel out of Egypt ?" Clearly Moses was, shall we say, at least stunned by this revelation from God. "Are You sure You want me? Surely there is somebody else You could use that would be much better than me." In fact, he continues with this line of thought, as we continue in the story here, to question God, or make excuses as to why he shouldn't do this. Unlike the story of Abraham and his unquestioning faith in God, Moses was full of questions because he wasn't convinced that this was the best plan. Follow along here, chapter 4 ...let's see here, where are we? Chapter 4, verse 1:
Ex. 4:1 – Then Moses answered and said, "But suppose they will not believe me or listen to my voice; suppose they say, 'The Lord has not appeared to you. Who do you think you are?'" Moses possibly felt intimidated. He was worried about peoples' reaction to him. "Why would they listen to me?" Look at all the things of where Moses' focus was. Where was his mind? Of course, God explains in the following verses that He'll take care of everything; but, then, if we didn't question it up to this point, we do now. We see Moses clearly reaching out and grabbing an excuse in verse 10:
Verse 10 – Then Moses said to the Lord, {speaker feigning stuttering} "O my Lord, I am not eloquent, neither before nor since You have spoken to Your servant; but I am slow of speech and slow of tongue." Moses was looking squarely at his inadequacies, as opposed to what God would be doing for him. The entire time that he's looking at his perceived inadequacies, he does not realize he's making excuses and running from God. This theme continues in verse 13.
Verse 13 – But he said, "O my Lord, please send by the hand of whomever else You may send. Please find someone else. Surely You've got the wrong person." Bottom line, he clearly did not want to do this. God had to encourage him, to the point of exasperation, as we see here in verse 14. So the anger of the Lord was kindled against Moses, and He said: "Is not Aaron the Levite your brother? I know that he can speak well. And look, he is also coming out to meet you. When he sees you, he will be glad in his heart."
The anger of God was kindled against Moses. God was growing weary of Moses' excuses. Look, if we'd like to be used by God, if we want to grow in spiritual maturity, if we want to be the best Christian that we can possibly be, we must pay attention to what God says, what He wants, and what our responsibility is. It is simply too easy for any of us to mimic society and come up with excuses as to why we should not do what God tells us to do.
Consider this example we just looked at. How many people do you think would see this as Moses making excuses rather than, well, Moses was just asking questions. Better yet, how many of us would see the difference. "Look, he was just asking God questions. He wasn't making excuses." What? As though God doesn't know what He's doing! There's a different line of reasoning and thinking between an individual who's not looking to make excuses. There's no doubt that you and I can come up with plenty of excuses when we don't feel like obeying or don't want to obey God, but this is the point of today's message: Do we truly realize how easy it is to make excuses and, in turn, disregard what God says. I dare say that any of us not only has done this in the past but too often does this yet today. If I can get nothing else across today than this, then I would hope that we would get this: God is looking for children who willingly submit to Him, people who don't make excuses, don't allow excuses to get in the way. Is this you? Is this me?
Let me share with you some excuses for missing work, found on excuselist.com.
I can't come in to work today because my friend's cat had kittens.
I'm stuck in the blood pressure machine down at the Food Giant.
I had a strong premonition that I shouldn't go out of the house today.
I have to go to the employment office to fill out some paperwork, and their office closes at 2 o'clock.
I cannot come in to work today because I came down with a bad case of something-or-other.
Obviously, these are some rather outrageous excuses. The list is much longer than that. I'm cutting down for sake of time. I'm pretty sure most all of them really wouldn't work with our employers, but what about excuses that are all too easy for us in God's church to make with one another and with God? Let me give you an example or two. Do these excuses hold water in God's eyes?
I realize that God says we are not to be unequally yoked, and yet, an end that every instruction He does give us regarding relationships in the Bible indicates with clarity what we are to do and what not to do if we expect to be blessed by God; BUT, surely He will understand that I'm lonely. After all, He's the one who designed us to share our lives with someone and become one flesh.
How about this one:
I know God tells us not to spare the rod, but, you know, I just don't believe that corporal punishment is right.
Now, let me add something to that. Please don't go out and ever beat your kids. That's not what I'm saying. I hope that was not what was taken from this. What I'm saying is, let's make sure we're clear on what the Bible says and stick to that. It works. How about this one:
I know God tells us to come out of the world, but, you know, I can't find any clothes that are in my style or my size that really cover that much. Somebody needs to tell those clothing manufacturers to make some clothing that covers us more popular.
Glad to hear you can find humor in that! How about this one:
I know the Bible teaches a man should have short hair and a woman should have long hair, but who's to say what is truly short and truly long?
Now, please understand, I realize there are individuals who can't because of health circumstances and all kinds of different things, they're not able to have and grow hair and so on. I understand, again, let's not get side tracked by other issues we can bring into this. Let's just stick with, what does God say? Why? What's the motive behind it? What's He thinking? What's He want us to learn and draw from this?
What's the point to this line of reasoning? Isn't the point to make excuses and get around what God says because we're unwilling to do what He says? Truth is, this is not an easy topic to talk about, much less deal with. My point is certainly, again, not to sit in judgment of others, but rather to encourage each of us to take a serious look at how we think, how we respond to God through our actions, and consider just how quickly we can and will make excuses apart from a conscious effort, twenty-four/seven, not to.
I'm always reminded, you know, Christ saved us FROM our sins, not IN our sins. When we say to ourselves, when we tell others, when we tell God that we love Him, that we live our lives to please Him, is that the example that's reflected in our lives? How many times just in the last month, maybe, have we made an excuse or excused ourselves from something, frankly, that we shouldn't have?
Let me share with you a few quotes that I feel are outstanding quotes about the subject of excuses. I apologize for going through some of these rather quickly. I know I normally would take a little bit more time and give you time to write some of the things down, but I thought these were excellent.
Excuses are the nails used to build a house of failure.
He who excuses himself accuses himself.
I like that one in particular because isn't this what the Bible shows? We excuse ourselves from obedience, for whatever the reason, and we prove ourselves to be accusable. Here's another one:
How strange to use, "Well, you know, you only live once," as an excuse to throw it away.
Have you ever done that or heard somebody say that? "Ah, you only live once, so let me go out and be an idiot and do something stupid."
Don't do what you'll have to find an excuse for. Good quote.
No one ever excused his way to success.
If you don't want to do something, one excuse is as good as another.
I like that one a lot. Once again this is a most interesting. If you don't want to do something, one excuse is as good as another. In other words, those wacky excuses that I just read to you a little while ago have as much validity and are as plausible as the excuses that are the examples that I used pertaining to the word of God.
We're all manufacturers. Some make good, others make trouble, and still others make excuses.
Every vice has it's excuse ready. We saw that in the alcoholics' excuses, didn't we?
Well, I mentioned we would address two questions in the course of this sermon. The first question you have to answer on your own: What is your excuse for not doing what you know you should be doing? I can't answer that for you. We have to answer that for ourselves.
The second question is something we all should be able to look at and answer together—what must I do in order to see where I'm blind to excuses? Well, as with anything, obviously, the place to start is on our knees. It doesn't matter who we are. Everyone of us needs to be asking God every week so that He helps us see where we might be making excuses in our lives, and where we might be compromising on God's instruction as a result.
Another real practical thing any of us can do is sit down and consider, what has our reasoning been just in recent decisions we've made concerning work or family or our relationship with God. In other words, go back and analyze, why did I say or do what I did in that particular manner? What was my motive for making that decision? Take the time to consider how your decision or actions may have been perceived by others and, most importantly, by God.
Let's go over to the 18th Psalm for a moment. Notice what verse 2 tells us:
Ps 18:2 – The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer; My God, my strength, in whom I will trust; My shield and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
This is what I'd ask that we make an effort to guard against. Take time to consider why God says what He does...sorry. That wasn't clicking right. Let's go to Proverbs. It's amazing, when you turn to the right place, it makes more sense. Don't you just love that? Proverbs 18, verse 2:
Prov 18:2 – A fool has no delight in understanding, but in expressing his own heart.
"I'm not interested in what God has to say. I'm interested in expressing how I feel. It doesn't matter what so-and-so says over here. It just matters that you hear my opinion." We live in a society that thrives on this today. "Hurry! Quick! Call in. Punch in on your computer. Give us your opinion. Tell us what you think, how you feel." That's not what you find in the Bible. You find just the opposite.
Let's consider a few New Testament scriptural passages that really bring home the damaging product—and, by the way, please scratch out of your notes Psalm 18!
We're quite familiar with the parable of the talents, so I won't turn there. Let's go to Matthew, chapter 8. We can easily see the excuses from the parable of the talents and what happened to the individual who did nothing with what he was given. God took away and gave it to the others. Matthew, chapter 8, and picking up in verse 18:
Matt 8:18-22 – And when Jesus saw great multitudes about Him, He gave a command to depart to the other side. Then a certain scribe came and said to Him, "Teacher, I will follow You wherever You go." And Jesus said to him, "Foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay His head." Then another of His disciples said to Him, "Lord, let me first go and bury my father." But Jesus said to him, "Follow Me, and let the dead bury their own dead."
What lesson can we learn regarding excuses from this passage? Would it not be fair to say that when God calls us, He expects us to follow Him without excuse? Now, I don't doubt for a moment that that's exactly why we are here today. We have made a conscious decision to follow God; but when I say follow God without excuse, consider once again what we've already gone through today. I can't help but think about Jeremiah 17:9, "The heart is deceitfully wicked above all." What about Proverbs 16:25 and Proverbs 14:12 which restate the same thing, "There's a way that seems right to a man but the end thereof leads to death." In other words, excuses are so ingrained in every single one of us that to think that we won't make excuses every time we have a chance is to think foolishly.
Consider a couple more examples of areas where people can sometimes find themselves making excuses and, perhaps, not realize it right away.
You know, I believe God expects me to tithe, but I also know that He says in I Timothy that if anyone does not provide for his own and especially for those of his household, he has denied the faith and is worse than an unbeliever, so He will understand why I cannot tithe right now during these tough financial times.
How about this one?
I know Matthew 18 tells me I'm supposed to go to my brother when he has offended me, but, you know, I just don't know how he's going to take it, and I think he's probably going to take it (or she) the wrong way, and that will make it even worse.
Well, the instruction's given in the Bible. It's up to us whether we're going to respond to it and follow it or not.
Fellow family members, it's so easy for us to find a way out of doing what God tells us we are to do. I guarantee you that you will always find a way out of something if you don't want to do it. I'll guarantee that. It doesn't even matter what God says to do.
Sometimes in my life, and countless times in the lives of many others, I've seen something wrong in the eyes of God seem awfully right in our eyes, simply because our focus is not on what God wants, but on what we want. It's essential for every Christian to contemplate the damage born of excuses. It's essential that every Christian not only contemplate the damage born of excuses, but then follow that with a proactive conscious attack against this enemy known as excuse.
Here's one more quote about excuses that I really like and I feel is a great one to commit to memory if we're able. I will say this one slowly enough for you who are note takers:
Bad men excuse their faults; good men abandon them.
Isn't this what God teaches us in the Bible should be one of our mottos as well?
Let's go on to one final scripture in Luke, chapter 14. Luke 14, beginning in verse 15, we read:
Luke 14:15-19 – Now when one of those who sat at the table with Him heard these things, he said to Him, "Blessed is he who shall eat bread in the kingdom of God !" Then He said to him, "A certain man gave a great supper and invited many, and sent his servant at supper time to say to those who were invited, 'Come, for all things are now ready.' But they all with one accord began to make excuses. The first said to him, 'I have bought a piece of ground, and I must go and see it. I ask you to have me excused.' And another said, 'I have bought five yoke of oxen, and I am going to test them.'" It might not be five oxen today. It might be a Corvette. "I've got to go test drive it. "
Continuing verses 19-24 – "'I ask you to have me excused.' Still another said, 'I have married a wife, and therefore I cannot come.'" Well, he either married the wrong woman or he's making a pitiful excuse here. "So that servant came and reported these things to his master. Then the master of the house, being angry, said to his servant, 'Go out quickly into the streets and lanes of the city, and bring in here the poor and the maimed and the lame and the blind.' And the servant said, 'Master, it is done as you commanded, and still there is room.' Then the master said to the servant, 'Go out into the highways and hedges, and compel them to come in, that my house may be filled. For I say to you that none of those men who were invited shall taste my supper.'"
I hope this would give us cause to stop and consider what it is that God expects of us. We have an incredible invitation. We have wonderful knowledge. How are we applying what God has given us? The truth is, excuses have no home in the life of a faithful, maturing Christian. We will all continue to make mistakes from time to time because we are human, but there's a significant difference between making mistakes from time to time and making excuses habitually.
To close today, I'd like to go back to the list of alcohol abuse excuses and read through some of them one more time, and I will now ask you to consider these in light of how God sees them, based on the scriptures that we have just read.
I don't see anything bad happening to me so far.
I can stop anytime I want to.
I am the way I am.
I don't have a problem.
I'm not hurting anybody but myself.
Nobody is going to tell me what to do.
Almost seems like the perfect one to end on, doesn't it? Imagine standing before God someday and saying, "Nobody's going to tell me what to do!"
Make no mistake. Excuses hurt. They hurt you, they hurt those around you that love you. If you don't believe that, all you have to do is watch one episode of the show, Intervention. God has given us so much in His church. Let's each make steady strides to find and to root out all excuses from our lives.
