Thursday, February 19, 2015

Just Say No To Sexual "Drugs": Save Your Testimony By Staying Clean And Sober

At UFC 183, one of my favorite UFC fighters made a comeback after suffering a leg injury that would have ended anybody else's career.  For those of you who didn't see the injury, it was a real-life version of the shin-breaking ending of the last fight in "Undisputed 3."  At one point, most people, myself included, considered this former champion the G.O.A.T. (i.e. "Greatest Of All Time") of MMA.  However, his triumphant return fell under the dark shadow of failed PED tests when it was revealed that not one, but two of his drug tests came back positive for steroids (see the click below):

http://sports.yahoo.com/news/anderson-silva-fails-ufc-183-fight-night-drug-224159984--mma.html;_ylt=A0LEVynCS.ZU4tkAdNpXNyoA;_ylu=X3oDMTEzZDQ3cWVzBGNvbG8DYmYxBHBvcwMxBHZ0aWQDVklQNTY1XzEEc2VjA3Nj 

Ironically, if Anderson Silva had fought his opponent and lost, but tested negative, his legacy would still be intact.  But now, everything that "The Spider" has accomplished in MMA is irreparably smeared due to poor decisions made at the tail end of an otherwise glorious career.  Likewise, if we, as Christians, lead many people to salvation through the gospel, but are exposed for taking the sexual "steroids" of immorality, our godly witness will be irrepairably damaged.  In fact, this already happened to the man who was "after God's own heart": King David.  The valiant shepherd boy who slew Goliath and became Israel's greatest king is also known as the guy who seduced Uriah the Hittite's wife, knocked her up, and killed her husband to avoid scandal.  King David took his wickedness to an extreme, but the reality is that ANYONE can fall into sexual sin.  Any man or woman who doesn't believe that they can fall into sexual sin has severely underestimated their greatest opponent: their own heart. 

My worse fear is that, as I seek to honor God by staying a virgin before marriage, I will screw up in a really big way and destroy my ministry before it even begins.  I know that, under the right circumstances, the wrong woman can turn me out and make me look stupid in front of the people I am trying to reach for Christ.  I also know that this temptation won't stop even after I am married, which is why I won't ever hang out alone with a woman who isn't my wife, mother, or, if I am blessed with children, my daughters.  The last thing I need is a mistress going to my future congregation and saying:

"Hi everybody!  I am your pastor's mistress!  I rode your minister like a male harlot!  Giddity, giddity, giddity!" (Insert female version of Quagmire's voice from "Family Guy").

DON'T do sexual steroids.  This includes any kind of immorality, even that porn habit that you only indulge in "once in a while" (which we both know is really every night, and ladies, novels like "Fifty Shades Of Grey" count).  Lay off the drugs of forbidden desires and fight clean and sober for Jesus!  

Numbers 32:23 "But if you fail to do this, you will be sinning against the Lord; and you may be sure that your sin will find you out." (NIV)