"Price check on aisle 4!"

Driving home this weekend, in the middle of a 3 hour drive, I noticed all the crazy drivers speeding, cutting off, tailgating, and practicing sign language. Then I remember how I used to drive like that minus the sign language, until the day I got the big one!!! Driving through Virginia, I wouldn't recommend it unless completely necessary, I got pulled over doing 80 in a 70 mph. Now if I was in NY, that wouldn't be that bad, but unbeknownst to me and left unmentioned by my father who happens to be a police officer in VA Beach, 80 mph and over is considered wreck-less driving which means a ticket and a court appearance to some where in Nowhere, VA. Also, considered a misdemeanor, jail time was also a possibility! Talk about freaking out on the side of the road! Thankfully no jail but I ended up paying close to $500 when everything was said and done! Not something I had just laying a round. Ever since, I have been very careful when I am driving and use my cruise control quite a bit. I got a glimpse of the high price for high speed and did not want to pay the piper again.

I write all of this because I think sin works a little like this. When we are tempted with sin and start considering it, we think about the benefits not the costs. I mean thats how Satan sells it, "its all about the now and no one will get hurt, its just between you and me!" We rarely consider the cost. What if we did consider the costs and ignore Satan's lie? His lie is that it won't cost much or anything at all, but we may never know the true costs of our sins. How many of us have realized that the ultimate cost of our sin is our own death and the death of Jesus. My sin put Christ on that cross, I was supposed to be there and He has taken my place, Hallelujah!

But what are the costs of our "cheap sins?"

Lets look at some of the costs:

1. Distance in relationships, wives, parents, children, friends, church family. How often do we think others are creating distance when actually our sins slowly drift us down the coast of all our relationships.
2. Money, how much money do we spend on fueling our lusts in order to find some satisfaction in life.
3. Separation from God, loneliness, paranoia. A constant fear and anxiety that cripples us from daily life.
4. Mental health: how stressed do we get trying to clean up after the messes we leave due to our sins.
5. Lose trust and respect, our reputations may be at stake.
6. Health, sickness, death, etc. I am not saying all sickness or health complications are directly due to sinful acts, but sometimes bad behavior has bad consequences (ex. drunk driving, stealing, promiscuity, etc.)

Please note that this is not a completed list. Let us, let me, consider the true cost of sin when we are faced with temptation. Consider your family, your friends, your relationship with Christ. What have you lost to sin? Was it worth it? No, it never is!

Jesus does not allow us to be tempted more than we can bear, but we must remember to seek strength and help from God when we find ourselves tempted. We can not win on our own, Christ already beat death, it is up to us to allow God's power to work in us!

We must be wary of un checked sin, because that is how our hearts become hard against God and lead us down the road of Death! Thankfully, God takes the dead and raises it again!