Pitfalls and Protection for Leaders

There are 10 principles taken from a sermon preached by John Piper. Today, I'll continue with the second principle.

Pitfall #2: A lost of horror of offending the holiness of God through sin
'Create in me a clean heart, O God; and renew a right spirit within me.' (Psalm 51:10)

The verse above was penned by David after he had committed adultery with Bathsheba. We bring our focus on 'renew a right spirit in me'. In the past, David had a right view of sin in his life, which was why he was referred to as a man after God's own heart. He was a man who walked uprightly and lived a righteous life. But there came a point in his life when he lose the horror of sin. There came a time when he begin to take sin lightly and did not realise how gross his sins were before a holy God.

In the same way with us, we can become casual with sin if we are not careful. Our values become corroded and we begin to lose a fear for God. We start to take God lightly and then we don't really care how our sins look like before a holy God. When this happen, we become vulnerable to the temptations of the evil one and fall into sin. It doesn't matter how spiritual and holy you are today, because this is an area that will cause many to fall. I'll end with a warning from Paul.

'Wherefore let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest he fall.' (1 Corinthians 10:12)

Protection #2: Meditate on the biblical truth that all our acts are God-centered and not man-centered
'Whether therefore ye eat, or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God.' (1 Corinthians 10:31)

Everything that we do either glorify or dishonour God, there is no in between. Every simple and small thing we do must be God-centered. Every major decisions and big things we do must be God-centered. Our lives are meant to please God. We were made to glorify Him. To protect ourselves from falling into this pitfall, we need to realign our thoughts and remember that all our acts, all our thoughts, all our words, all that we do must be God-centered. God must be our focus everyday!