Several months ago I gave a mini-sermon at Christ Image Church. It had been quite sometime since I spoke in front of my home church, but I was not nervous surprisingly enough, I was excited to bring forth the word that God had lain on my heart. It was not a word about the people becoming rich or about how eager God is to forgive us, if we just ask. No, it was a word of a different kind, it was a word about personal responsibility and accountability in your walk with Christ.

I spoke of people, most of us actually, who treat God as if He were their scapegoat. God placed this in my spirit and I did not understand why at the time, but as the day of my sermon got closer I began to understand, even more in the days following the sermon.

I explained what the "scapegoat" actually was. Just to give you a quick definition:

"The scapegoat was a goat that was driven off into the wilderness as part of the ceremonies of Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, in Judaism during the times of the Temple in Jerusalem. The rite is described in Leviticus 16:6-10.

Since this goat, carrying the sins of the people placed on it, is sent away to perish, the word "scapegoat" has come to mean a person, often innocent, who is blamed and punished for the sins, crimes, or sufferings of others, generally as a way of distracting attention from the real causes."

 As I said before, this was not a normal sermon. Anyway, the main point I was and am making now is that we tend to try and use God's word and God Himself as a get out of jail free card. We do things that we know are wrong and when the situation goes from bad to worse we ask "why has God forsaken me", "why me", and the famous "it must be God's will". All of which get under my skin a little bit, because most of the time when we say that, we are saying  that our mistake is God's fault and not our own.

It reminds me of the teenager who wants to drive the family car and dad keeps saying "no", then after many talks and lessons on responsibility the dad says "yes". The teenager goes out and rearends another car. Instead of admiting they made a mistake, they learned from it. They blame the dad or parent, saying things like "You knew I wasn't ready, why did you let me drive?".

The most disturbing thing I heard was an older woman whose grandson had commited suicide after  a year or two of depression. She made the comment that "it must have been God's will". With all due respect to my elder, that is ridiculous. It is not God's will that you commit suicide, murder, theft, adultery, lie, or commit any other sin. Now, he knows when you will be tempted, but you choose what do to when that temptation comes. You cannot even blame the devil, you allowed yourself to walk in that sin.Remember the word says that the enemy lurks around looking for whom he may devour (1 Peter 5:8).

Basically what I am saying is that God did something special with us, He gave us the power to decide our own path, what we call freewill. Because of that we must take responsibility for our failures and shortcomings. If that is hard to hear, it is even harder to do, beleive me I know.

Now, saying this does not mean that there are not times when the devil manipulates situations to his advantage and throws obstacles in your path, but what it does mean is that not everything can be blamed on the enemy, or fate, or anything else except our inability to follow the direction that God is giving us and instead follow our flesh without guidance from the spirit. 

So the question is , how do we stop or minimize "helping" teh enemy pull me into sin?

• Stay in prayer, everyday in every situation, several times a day or more
• Pay attention to that "voice" that tells you "this is wrong", before you do something.
• Remember, most things you have to do in secret are things that shouldn't be done.
• Is what your about to do something that you would feel comfortable with Jesus watching you do? 
• Speak with your pastor, minister, or priest about temptations you have been experiencing.
• Take a look at the friends you have around you, you may need to reevaluate them.
  • If you have a problem with drugs, why would you continue to hang around with people doing drugs or selling drugs?
  • If they really care about you they will understand and not interfere, if they don't then relationship ends. Either way you are away from it.

Remember the enemy is a thief and like most thieves he is an opportunist. He will take advantage of an opening you leave him. If you leave you car door unlocked and your cell phone on the seat when you leave, don't be suprised if your phoen is gone when you get back. You left an opening and a thief took advantage. If you leave your soul open to attack, that attack will succeed more times than not. When you help with the attack, I can almost guarantee that the attack will succeed, at least in the short term. Never forget that God's grace and mercy can save us if we want to be saved.