"AN OUNCE OF PREVENTION IS WORTH A POUND OF CURE!"

MATTHEW 26:36-41

We often learn the hard way that performing preventative maintenance on our vehicles is cheaper and easier in the long run than letting them break down and having to repair them. Similarly, cancer researchers are finally coming to the conclusion that while research to find a cure for cancer is needed, even more needed is research into ways to prevent cancer in the first place. If causes could be identified and eliminated, much suffering, anxiety and death could be averted. The same holds true for our lives. If we would prevent some of our difficulties in the first place, we wouldn't have to cure them in the second place. Chad, a teen aged boy, wished he'd learned that lesson earlier. His parents were going out with friends and told him to stay home to finish his history paper. He had just gotten his driver's license and asked, "can I use the car for just a little while? Um, I need to borrow a book from Todd -- I'll only be gone awhile." His father refused: "absolutely not! You have enough books. You stay home and work on that paper." Then they left. It didn't seem fair! They weren't using the car and he would only be gone an hour or so; there would still be time to work on the stupid paper. Just then the phone rang; it was Todd, "come on over! All the guys are here!" Now Chad was even more tempted to take the car. He thought he could go to Todd's and be back before his folks got home. If he was careful to put just enough gas in, they'd never be the wiser. He was about to set himself up for a major difficulty. He'd have been a happier and wiser young man to have prevented a trouble he couldn't cure. In the text, Jesus identifies 2 factors in preventing spiritual difficulty. He would far rather we deal with temptation and conquer it than to succumb to it and need to be restored. Jesus knows that an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure. What had Jesus said that can prevent spiritual disaster before it happens?

• JESUS SAID, "KEEP WATCHING!"

• The word He used means:
• To be vigilant, open eyed. Peter uses it this way when he said, "be of sober spirit, be on the alert. Your adversary, the devil, prowls about like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour." 1 Peter 5:8.
• To be awake and alert. Paul uses it in that way, saying, "devote yourselves to prayer, keeping alert in it with an attitude of thanksgiving;" Colossians 4:2.
• The operative word here is "keep!" "Keep watching!" Watch at all times and in all circumstances, remaining continually alert!
• It is the "look before you leap," "glance around you" sort of vigilance we all ought to exercise:
• We get out of our car in a parking lot and scan the area for possible car-jackers.
• We look around carefully before making a withdrawal from our atm so we don't end up a mugging victim.
• If we take our children to the park we keep watch so they don't wander off or encounter some danger.
• So, how does this apply in life?
• Keep watching: don't let the world lull you to sleep with its deceptive new age lullabies.
• Keep watching: don't let sports or popularity or pleasure or money or anything else become your central focus, or your God.
• Keep watching: don't let the world cram you into the mold of its mores, ethics and values.
• Keep watching: don't embrace what God abhors.
• Keep watching: don't linger at the newsstand if you are allured by the magazines there.
• Keep watching: don't keep the t.v. tuned to programs which tempt you and pollute your mind with pornographic, x-rated garbage.
• Keep watching: don't be blind to the fact that sex outside of marriage is fornication, a sin for which God will judge you unless you repent.
• Keep watching: don't imagine that just a little, just this once won't hurt. A little leaven permeates and corrupts the whole loaf.
• A little boy wanted nothing but a watch for his birthday. He hinted, he asked, he reminded. His father finally said, "i don't want to hear anything more about a watch!" the family had a practice of daily Bible reading, and it came the little boy's turn to read. He selected Jesus' words: "And what I say unto you I say unto all, 'watch.'" Mark 13:37. Jesus said those words in all seriousness and we would be wise to take Him seriously.

Chad would have been a wiser young man to have watched his step. He understood full well his parents decision that he couldn't take the car. But he tried to persuade himself, "nobody will ever know." He surely should have watched. He could have prevented an ill for which he had no cure. But there is more than just being alert; more than just watching.

• JESUS SAID, "KEEP WATCHING AND PRAYING!"

• The word Jesus used for prayer means to supplicate or entreat earnestly for something. This is no half-baked, sleepy-eyed, mumbled thing like "Now I lay me down to sleep," or "God is great, God is good, let us thank Him for our food."
• This is:
• Following Jesus' instruction to pray: "and lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil." Matthew 6:13.
• Laboring in prayer, this is wrestling and contending and warring in prayer.
• Like Jesus, praying in gethsemane with sweat falling like drops of blood.
• Prayer with a consciousness that our very soul, our very destiny is at stake.
• When we encounter temptation to sin it is necessary to cry out to our father in prayer so that
• We walk in the spirit and do not gratify the desires of the flesh. Galatians 5:16.
• We put on the lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh in regard to its lusts. Romans 13:14.
• "I had a battle fierce today within my place of prayer; I went to meet and talk with God, but I found satan there. He whispered, 'you can't really pray, you lost out long ago; you might say words while on your knees, but you can't pray, you know.' so then I pulled my helmet down, way down upon my ears, and found it helped to still his voice and helped allay my fears. I checked my other armor o'er; my feet in peace were shod; my loins with truth were girded 'round; my sword the word of God. My righteous breastplate still was on, my heart's love to protect. My shield of faith was all intact - his fiery darts bounced back. I called on God in Jesus' name, I pled the precious blood - while satan sneaked away in shame, I met and talked with God!"

Instead of merely talking to himself about the car, Chad would have been wise to talk to God in prayer about it. But after convincing himself there would be no harm done if he took the car for awhile, Chad blew it. He got in the car and took off. He had been tempted and could have resisted. He could have done what his dad told him to do. He could have obeyed. But not Chad. Chad entered into temptation. That is precisely what Jesus Christ does not want any of us to do. Hence his instruction to keep watching and praying.

• JESUS SAID, "KEEP WATCHING AND PRAYING THAT YOU MAY NOT ENTER INTO TEMPTATION!":
• Temptations, evil allurements, inducements to sin are sure to come. That's the inevitable part. We have no control over that. But we do have control over our response! We don't have to enter into them.
• Let me illustrate in two ways:
• Martin luther was so right when he said, "you can't stop the birds from flying over your head, but you can stop them from building nests in your hair!"
• If someone comes up to you carrying a bag of putrid garbage and says, "here, this is yours!" you don't have to accept it! It isn't yours until you take it.
• There is a world of difference between being tempted and entering into temptation.
• Proverbs 1:10 "my son, if sinners entice you, do not consent." The enticement is temptation; consent is entering in!
• Hebrews 4:15 "for we do not have a high priest who cannot sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who has been tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin." He was tempted but did not sin.
• Being tempted is hearing the sales pitch; sinning is signing the contract. Being tempted is hearing the invitation of the seductress; sin is going to the party.
• We all hear the door bell ring, but we don't have to answer the door; we all hear the call, but we don't have to heed it.
• One former patron of a saloon, now freed from the bonds of alcohol, learned that it was necessary for him to park his car down the street from his former haunt because when he walked by the doors he felt a strong pull to enter; the pull was the temptation, entering in would have been the sin.

Chad entered into temptation. He took the car without permission and disaster struck. He didn't see the bicycle until it and the rider were rolling over the hood of the car. The rider was unconscious as the ambulance carried He r to the hospital. Would she live or would she die? Chad had no clue and suddenly He felt like such a fool. He had blown it. What if you've already blown it? What if you've lost your purity, your integrity, your character? What if you have not only entered into temptation but abide in sin? There is a way out. Jesus Christ has assured us that He will not only forgive us for sin, but He will break the power of sin in our lives. He is ready, able and willing to forgive the worst of us. Jesus comes to the rescue of all who humbly ask him to. It doesn't matter what mess you are in, how you have fouled up your life, or what you have done, Jesus has the power, grace and authority to save you. He is able to save you, He is able to change you, He is able to deliver you.

Story adapted and altered from HotIillustrations for Youth Talks, Wayne Rice, Youth Specialties, El Cajon, Ca. Original story had a flat tire theme.

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