I'm currrently reading the book "Go and Sin No More." The author, Michael L. Brown, gives 21 reasons not to sin and he goes into detail on each one. It is really thought provoking and so true! I have briefly mentioned them below. The rest of the book goes on to talk about grace, holiness and other important things. I highly recommend it.
1 - Sin does not satisfyIt does not satisfy in the long run...the high will fade and you will be left with an empty feeling, a feeling of being unclean, ungratified, discontent.
2 - Sin leads to more sinGreed cannot be satisfied with possessions; drug addiction cannot be satisfied with a great high; lust cannot be satisfied with a one night stand; pride cannot be satisfied with promotion and fame--you will always just want more...and each time you give in to temptation and sin you become weaker.
3 - Sin leads to worse sinsThe serial killer started somewhere--perhaps with fits of disobedience when he was a child, perhaps by being cruel to his pet cat, perhaps with a sexual fetish--before becoming a monster capable of taking innocent human lives. This is the cycle: Sin doesn't satisfy, leading to more sin, which then opens the door to worse sin (uglier, harder, more destructive, more despicable, more disgusting, more deadly). And all the while the heart grows harder.
4 - Sin enslaves Sin enslaves to itself (leads to more sins and worse sins, each one more binding than the last), it enslaves to the flesh (habitual sin creates addictions and bodily cravings come alive with a vengeance--harmful mental habits are formed and destructive patterns of living are birthed) and it enslaves to demons (they are the epitome of everything ugly and destructive and they suddenly are harrassing you, intimidating you, beckoning you and dominating you).
5 - Sin degrades and humiliates
Think about any public figure who has worked for years to gain the respect of the people and establish a solid reputation and then look at what happens to their reputation when they commit a gross sin and that sin is made known. How do you view that gifted author when you find out he's a wife beater? Or that outstanding Teacher of the Year after you discover he's addicted to pornography?
6 - Sin steals joy
Sin bursts the bubble of joy and breaks communion with God, the Source of all true happiness. The lift from your heart is gone; the feeling that "all is well" has departed; where there was fullness, their is a gaping hole; where there was peace, there is turmoil.
7 - Sin steals our confidence before God
Sin steals all purity and innocence, making us uneasy with people and uncomfortable with God. Think of the man who just betrayed his best friend for the sake of a big business deal...he can no longer look him in the eye.
8 - The wages of sin is death
Sin assaults our sensitivity, trashes our conscience, mauls our willpower and defiles our soul. You could almost say that every time we sin, something in us dies. Then, at the end of the road, sin pays up with death--and that means separation from God, now and throughout eternity.
9 - God will punish the sinners--in this world and the world to come
It is enough that God has established immutable laws of sowing and reaping, so that everything we do has consequences for better or worse (cigarette smoking leads to lung cancer; alcoholism leads to cirrhosis of the liver; promiscuity leads to STDs; obesity leads to heart disease). But, there's more to sin than just these principles that work on their own without outside intervention. God Himself actively judges sinners and His wrath is the worst.
10 - Sin hurts the Lord
When you persistently sin, you wound your Savior and spit in His face, making a mockery of His love and denying your words of devotion and praise. Your disobedience causes Him grief.
11 - Sin hurts the sinner
Sin messes everything up--your day, your family, your health, your finances, your job, your mind. What's scary is that you never know where the mess might be. That bold-faced lie to your boss today might cost you your engagement to your fiancee tomorrow. How? It could simply be a matter of the blessing of God departing. It could be that you lose your job, fouling up your marriage plans. It could be that your sweetheart hates lies more than anything in this world. It could be that you start acting weird because you can't live with the conviction. It could be that you become calloused and insensitive, plunging you into worse, uglier sins that destroy your relationship. There doesn't have to be a logical connection for the negative outworkings of sin. The fact is, if you keep on sinning it will haunt you and hunt you until it hurts you.
12 - Sin hurts the sinner's family and friends
Your sin has wider consequences than just you alone. It can negatively affect those around you, especially if you are in leadership. People can be scarred for life by what you've done; people could lose their trust in you; people could turn from the Lord.
13 - Sin brings reproach--to the sinner, to the church, to the name of the Lord
Our foolishness, our compromise, our hypocrisy, our worldliness and our sin makes us, the church as a whole and Jesus look bad.
14 - Sin makes lights of the blood of Jesus
When you give in to sin, you willfully engage in the very things that cost Jesus His life. It would have been amazing enough if God simply continued to love us after we rebelled against Him and just left us to go our own way. It would have been an extraordinary example of longsuffering if He simply allowed us to live, sustaining us with health and breath. But it is almost incomprehensible to think that He actually sent His Son into this world, and that His Son actually died for us.
15 - Sin puts the sinner on the side of the devil, demons and the world
There is a terrible war raging every hour of every single day. The forces of darkness assault all that is good in this universe, seeking to steal, kill and destroy. The devil and his demons love to cause pain. When we sin, we join forces with hell and become accomplices of the devil.
16 - Sin sets the sinner against God, the church, holiness, life, blessing and victory
There is no neutrality when it comes to spiritual things. Every time I disobey, I not only sin against God, but I actually set myself against Him and therefore against everything He stands for--His people (the church) and His principles (goodness, purity, blessing, life, peace, joy). I am then working against the Holy Spirit, opposing the ministering angels and making life harder for my fellow believers.
17 - Sin saps the annointingSin can render the annointing ineffective--be it the annointing to preach or teach, the annointing to heal or deliver or the annointing to counsel or lead.
18 - Sin steals time It takes time to sin, time to get your heart right before God and more time to battle addictive sins. Fighting sin drains you emotionally and you may find that the vision you had has faded, the motivation is lost and the inspiration has waned.
19 - Sin has eternal consequences
Believers in every walk of life will either take other souls to heaven with you (through your witness) or leave them to die in their sins (through your failure to witness). Leaders, in particular, represent Jesus to a lost world and if they fall, they may take lots of others with them. Eternity makes things to weighty!
20 - Your sin will always find you out
Why sin if you know that sooner or later you're going to get caught? Why do something in secret that eventually will be known in public? One way or another what we do will catch up with us either in this world or in the world to come. Of course, if you truly repent and turn from your sins, the Lord will wipe them away, sometimes even softening the blow of the negative consequences of those wrongful acts. But if you are just playing games, or if you somehow think you can sin with impunity, or if you only ask the Lord for forgiveness so that you can go and sin again then you can bank on this: your sin will find you out.
21 - You sin could cost you your salvation
Sin separates you from God and if you continually live in sin and never repent you will not be saved in the end.
My co-pastors define sin as "an inappropriate response to an appropriate need." That's such a great and simple definition. Think about it--it applies to sexual sins (the need to be wanted, loved and feel pleasure), stealing (to meet physical needs such as food, clothing, shelter and fun) and so on. Basically, God has provided good and right ways to have our needs met and sin is when we try to meet those needs incorrectly.
