The Twenty-fifth Bear
“But each person is tempted when they are dragged away by their own evil desire and enticed. Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.” James 1:14-15
There was a scientist who lived on an island with 1,600 grizzly bears. He studied them for years and years. The scientist named, tracked, and researched these bears extensively and he concluded that one out of 25 grizzly bears has something in its makeup, personality, and temperament that makes it a killer. Any grizzly bear can kill you in the right setting if you get between them and a cub or if you surprise them. But most bears, even grizzly bears are not necessarily looking to attack someone. He eventually determined that only one out of 25 grizzly bears are what he called an “angry killer bear.” Meaning, only one grizzly bear out of 25 will actually hunt you, stalk you, and eat you. The problem is you never know which bear it is.
Park rangers in Canada tell you that if you see a bear in the woods you are supposed to scream real loud, raise your hands, and try to look as big as you can. And for most bears, this would be enough to scare them off. But if it’s the 25th bear, he’s going to look back and say “challenge accepted.” You never know which bear could be the wrong bear to mess with. This is how sin is. You dabble in a sin and nothing happens. You get around it and it’s no problem, it runs off. You know you’re in dangerous territory, but you get more and more familiar with it and grow used to seeing it not do any damage. And the more you go there, the more you get into that situation, the more relaxed you are with it. It seems easy to handle. And even though it’s 1,300 pounds of teeth and claws, you become desensitized to the possibility of danger.
If the Bible says, “Watch out, be careful, stay away. Thou shalt not..” and you keep going in like that bear is your friend, it’s only a matter of time before the 25th bear shows up. You are not an exception. You have to stay out of a grizzly bear’s dwelling place. There are some places you just shouldn’t go. There are some people you shouldn’t mess with. You can love them and pray for them but you don’t need them in your inner circle. Your friends are a photograph of your future.
So many of God’s people are torn to pieces by alcoholism and drug addiction. Bears may be cute but they will tear you to pieces. Sin is not your friend. Drunkenness is not your friend. Weed is not your friend. Sex outside of marriage is not your friend. It may not have destroyed you yet but it’s only a matter of time before you encounter the 25th bear. There comes a moment where you have to stand up and say, “No, wait a minute. My body is not my own, I belong to God.” Be careful that you do not lose your convictions and get so friendly with sin and the wrong people that you put yourself in danger without realizing it.
The thief comes to kill, steal and destroy. If the enemy is enticing you, saying, “Come on out here into my forest.” He’s not doing it so you can have a good time, he has an attack on his mind. And what happens to people is the same thing that happened to Samson. Samson was anointed and called. He had purpose and he was powerful but he kept laying down his head in Delilah’s lap. Wrong person, wrong place, wrong thing and every time he would do it, he got a little more comfortable. And she would say, “Tell me your secret.” She would run her hands through his hair. And at first he felt like lightning bolts were going to hit him. Isn’t that how we feel when we first start doing stuff we shouldn’t be doing? But then, when nothing happens we think God is saying, “It’s no big deal.” The voice of conviction gets smaller and smaller each time we ignore it and continue in sin.
Sin is not your friend. Sin will thrill and then kill. Sin will fascinate and then assassinate. There is pleasure in sin for a season. And then the 25th sin shows up and what seemed beautiful and fun starts ripping you to pieces. The crazy thing is Samson knew Delilah was working with the enemy to capture him! But isn’t it crazy that he kept laying back down in her lap anyhow? When you start acting like that bear is your friend and you're not even ashamed of sinning anymore that's when the 25th bear will show up. You never know which bear will destroy your life.
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