Girls, Gold, and Glory—the message remains as fresh in my mind as last Sunday’s sermon even though it was the charge at my Bible College Graduation thirty-five years ago. The commencement speaker subtitled it the three downfalls of ministers. Today he might add, Girls & Guys. Neither can we confine it just to ministers. I suppose the reason I remember it so well is the fact hardly a week has passed since then that I didn’t hear or read of a minister or a Christian who failed because of the temptations coming from girls/guys, gold, and glory.
Inherently, none of these are sinful. Issues arise when people abuse their designated purpose outside the boundaries God set in place. The Lord God created guys and girls and gave them sexual desires, which He designed for fulfillment within the bounds of marriage. The common New Testament word condemning sex beyond God’s limitations is most often translated sexual immorality. Several other words describe various acts violating Biblical teaching—adultery, perversions, moral impurity, promiscuity, male prostitutes, homosexuals, and even what takes place in the mind or lust. Everyone who looks at a woman with lust for her has already committed adultery with her in his heart (Matt 5:28).
Gold for Christians has become a dominant teaching in many circles. Jesus warned the Laodicea church, ‘Because you say, “I am rich, and have become wealthy, and have need of nothing,” and you do not know that you are wretched and miserable and poor and blind and naked (Rev 3:17). Paul counseled Timothy, But those who want to get rich fall into temptation and a snare and many foolish and harmful desires which plunge men into ruin and destruction (1Tim 6:9). I observed the pastor of a thriving church go from near a thousand in attendance to nothing after he decided that money was the answer to all the church’s goals. Leadership replaced ministry with endeavors to accrue wealth. The pastor secured loans on debt-free church property, which he poorly invested in non-church businesses. This led to bankruptcy and the loss of all property and people. Gold is an essential element for any church and everyone’s life. However, we must heed the multiple warnings in Scripture and carefully guard against greed and the temptation gold brings. In the parable of the sower—Jesus first parable—He taught the deceitfulness of wealth and riches were like thorns which choke a Christian’s fruit.
An acquaintance accepted a position in a mega-church pastored by an internationally known preacher. He was astonished soon after assuming his job that their bookstore sold life-sized cutouts of the pastor for members to place in their homes. He soon realized this was the tip of the iceberg of the pastor’s self-glory. He left in less than six months. God does not share His glory. “I am the Lord; that is my name; my glory I give to no other, nor my praise to carved idols,” (Isaiah 42:8). Glory means the quality of God’s character that emphasizes His greatness, His authority, His power, and His honor. All mankind falls short of the glory of God (Rom 3:23). Any good we achieve is because of the Holy Spirit and He should receive the glory. Nebuchadnezzar walked on the roof of his palace glorying in what he thought he had accomplished. The king reflected and said, ‘Is this not Babylon the great, which Imyself have built as a royal residence by the might of my power and for the glory of my majesty?’ (Dan 4:30). He immediately became like an animal eating grass. His hair grew like eagle feathers and his finger nails like claws. The Lord said this would continue until you recognize that the Most High is ruler over the realm of mankind. Herod stood before a crowd in his royal apparel, the people kept crying out, “The voice of a god and not of a man!” And immediately an angel of the Lord struck him because he did not give God the glory, and he was eaten by worms and died (Act 12:22, 23). Anyone robbing God of His glory faces horrible consequences.
The common excuse today for any of these sins is, “I was born that way.” I don’t disagree with that statement. I was born ‘that’ way. In fact, everyone is born ‘that’ way. The Bible calls it the sin nature, the flesh, and the old self. My ‘that’ was a strong genetic tendency towards alcoholism. Although headed in that direction at one time, I could not use that as an excuse for becoming an alcoholic. Paul gives everyone hope, our old self (sin nature) was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin. . . do not let sin reign in your mortal body so that you obey its lusts (Rom 6:6, 12). Paul admonishes us put on the new self, which in the likeness of God has been created in righteousness and holiness of the truth (Eph 4:24). In addition, God indwells us through the Holy Spirit giving us power to overcome the old self. But I say, walk by the Spirit, and you will not carry out the desire of the flesh (Gal 5:16). What is your ‘that’? It really does not matter. He has rendered your old nature with all its ‘thats’ powerless and given you a new nature in Christ.
Sustaining Word for the Week: No believer has an excuse to fail because of girls, guys, gold, or glory. We are all tempted to yield to our sinful nature, instead, yield yourself to the Word and the power of the Holy Spirit.