Passing Pleasures

Are you familiar with the term passing pleasures? I am and it takes on all kinds of meanings but it originally came from a teenager in our youth ministry about 5 years ago. We did an exercise where everyone turned their back to the group in a circular formation on the floor with the lights turned off. We went around the room and prayed and then each person was given the opportunity to lift up a praise to God, and then they were given the opportunity to lift up a sin or a struggle in their life that they know constantly creates a barrier between them and the life God wants for them. As we went around the room this one young man who we knew struggled with some things spoke out, we were shocked but excited, and he lifted up passing pleasures as his concern and sin. He later elaborated on it and it was an eye opening experience for me.
He said he struggles with sexual sins and with drugs and drinking from time to time. He said he will go clean and pure for about 2 weeks and then stumble in some way and he knows that only God could get him through those 2 weeks, and it was going to take a stronger relationship with God to get farther away than 2 weeks. He went on to tell me that he was so upset and depressed many times because of his sin. This young man never made a profession of faith, or anything like that publicly but I could see a change in his attitude after a ski trip a few years before this night. We all noticed it and we have prayed since then that he had accepted CHrist that night. Well, back to the story at hand. He said he got depressed a lot because he would come to church on Wednesdays and on SUndays when he didn't have to work and feel good. He said he would even see friends who used to pressure him into such mistakes, but he didn't cave in. He didn't feel the urge to, then he said out of no where he would get the urge to watch something on the internet that he shouldn't, or to go get some drugs and smoke them. He would cave in and within an hour be completely depressed, he said the depression had 2 parts.
First, he was depressed because the sensations of the sin did not have the same affects on him as the first time he had done it. Yet, each time he indulged he expected those feelings to be as great as the first time.
Secondly, he was depressed because he had traded several weeks of hard work and resisting temptation, and the coming days facing depression for just a few minutes of pleasure. This is a unique and awesome way to understand how we operate as humans.
Every time you sin you are being selfish, and exemplifying a lack of humility. You are chosing yourself over God's desires for you and your life. You are often doing it to do something wrong for a few minutes and possibly feel the affects for months or even years.
Then Jacob gave Esau some bread and some lentil stew. He ate and drank, and then got up and left. So Esau despised his birthright" (Gen 25:34).
Think about it this way, Esau had everything Jacob wanted. He had the birthrite and all the skills and tools that Jacob wished he had. What did Esau do with it? He traded it all away for one meal. How ridiculous is that, he traded away his life and his entire inheritance for one meal.
That's how we act, we trade away a perfect and pure relationship with Jesus Christ every time we sin. And the sins usually last a few minutes, gratifying our impulsive lack of humility for a passing pleasure. ANything from lying, cheating or stealing, to immorality and drunkeness, they all separate us from GOd and do not deliver anything worth the separation for even one moment.
Thanks for reading and have a great day!