Have you ever built a giant structure with Legos?

Or a Jenga tower taller than you?

Let’s face it, one of the best things about it was watching it crash to ground. ESPECIALLY if a sibling had been the one to build it. (Come on, don’t act like I’m the ONLY bad sister out here!)

Building, creating, even (ahem) helping deconstruct these toys is a lot of fun. They’re toys.

The problem you get into is when you start building a foundation of sin in your life.

You may start with something small- sneaking office supplies home or taking a pill to help us unwind. But then it keeps building. And building.

Before long, that little drink after work has turned into six. You aren’t taking care of your home, your kids, or yourself.

Or maybe you’ve run out of medicine the doctor gave you so you start looking for new doctors. When that doesn’t work, you end up meeting a friend of a friend in a parking lot, justifying that if the doctor had given you what you needed, you wouldn’t be in this position.

It’s not just drugs and alcohol.

Have you ever been convicted of what you watch on television? You leave it on wholesome tv for awhile but then everybody starts talking about that new show on HBO. You tune in and pretty soon you’re back to watching whatever you want, regardless of the sin that leads to the laugh track.

‘Cause if you can laugh at it, you can do it.

What about gambling?

You say you want to play a few slots on vacation but here it is, months later, and you are desperately trying to win back your rent money.

It doesn’t happen overnight but once you open the door to sin, it quickly consumes you.

That’s why the Lord says in Galatians 2:18, For if I build again the things which I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor.

Why would you go to the all the trouble of cleaning up your life only to sully it up with sin once again?

Some of us had to dig pretty deep to destroy the roots of sin in our lives.

When we built our home, with post-Katrina regulations, we had to dig a 14-foot footing in the ground as a base.

That was nothing compared to the depths of sin and hurt and anger that I had to clear out when I came to Jesus.

So why would I build it back again?

….and let me tell you a little secret….

If you’ve ever been convicted of something in your life, you’ve KNOWN that it was something God wanted you to stop doing, it doesn’t magically become okay with God again.

You’ve just rolled it around in your mind and made it okay because it was something YOU wanted to do.

You can deny it, pretend, justify….but you KNOW deep-down that it’s wrong.

And you are once again building up that foundation of things you destroyed.

...and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. James 1:15