In this sermon, the preacher focuses on the dangers of meddling with sinful behaviors. He emphasizes that when we yield ourselves to sin, it can lead to enslavement and destruction. The preacher mentions specific examples of dangerous behaviors, such as drug use and pornography, and highlights the negative consequences they can have on individuals and families. He urges listeners to avoid these temptations and emphasizes the importance of ceasing from strife and foolish meddling. The sermon draws from the book of Romans and the teachings of Solomon in the Bible to support its message.

Now let's turn in our Bibles to Psalm 55 for our scripture reading today. I'll read the first, the odd-numbered verses, and we ask you to join together in the reading of the even-numbered verses through Psalm 55. Shall we stand as we read? Give ear to my prayer, O God, and hide not thyself from my supplication. Because of the voice of the enemy and because of the oppression of the wicked, for they cast iniquity upon me, and in wrath they hate me. Fearfulness and trembling are come upon me, and horror hath overwhelmed me. For then would I fly away, and be oppressed. Lo, then would I wander far off, and remain in the wilderness. I would hasten to my escape from the mean storms of death. Destroy, O Lord, and divide their tongues, for I have seen violence and strife in the city. They inactive program of the false herald, he shall also sorrow from the mistletoe. Wickedness is in the midst thereof, deceit and guile depart not from her streets. But it was thou, a man mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance. Let death seize upon them, and let them go down quick into hell. For wickedness is in their dwellings and among them. Evening and morning and at noon will I pray and cry aloud, and he shall hear my voice. God shall hear and afflict them, even he that abideth of old. Because they have no changes, therefore they fear not God. The words of his mouth were smoother than butter, but war was in his heart. His words were softer than oil, yet were they like drawn swords. But thou, O God, shalt bring them down into the pit of destruction. Bloody and deceitful men shall not live out half their days, but I will trust in thee. Let's pray. Lord, even as the psalmist exhorts us, help us this day to cast our burdens, Lord, upon you. Knowing, Lord, that you will sustain us, you will not allow the righteous to be moved. Lord, we do pray that this day, even now, our hearts will be pliable. That you might plant the seed of your word into our hearts, and that it might root and then grow and bear fruit in our lives. Fruit unto righteousness, in Jesus' name we pray. Amen. This morning we'd like to draw your attention to the 20th chapter and verse 3, where Solomon declares, it is an honor for a man to cease from strife. But every fool will be meddling. Many people today are meddling around with things that have a potential danger, but they disregard the danger. And thus, they meddle around with these things until they are destroyed. As Solomon said, but every fool will be meddling. Some of the dangerous things that people are meddling with today, as I think of them, first of all, is drugs. I think of the millions of lives today that are totally messed up because of drugs. What possible benefit can be derived from using heroin, or crack, or coke, or the plethora of other drugs? Look at the number of lives that have been wiped out because they entered into that world of no return. That long road of a living hell began the day that they decided they would meddle with drugs. Maybe it was just a dare. Maybe it was peer pressure. Maybe it was just curiosity. Maybe it was just marijuana at first. But that broke down some of their defenses, and it made it easier to advance to coke, and then to crack, and then to heroin. And today, you see them living in crack houses, selling their bodies, or engaged in all kinds of vice, just to get money for the next fix. When they first started meddling with drugs, I'm sure that their intention was not to be where they are today. But nonetheless, that's what's happened to them. I see the pictures. I read the articles of the hundreds of thousands of young people, teenagers, and some of them preteens, who are living in the sewers of some of the major cities in Europe. And in South America, kids who are strung out on glue sniffing. See the pictures of them as they're sniffing the glue, and their lives, their brains being destroyed. And you wonder what's to become of them. There's another thing that people often meddle with, and that's alcohol. You know, every alcoholic started with his first drink. But what prompted that first drink? Again, it's usually peer pressure or curiosity. Today, there are many, many high school kids that are meddling with beer. And we read every week of some accident with alcohol involved where young people out on a drinking spree got in a severe accident. Many of them were killed. Some of them maimed for life. And you realize that those that were killed were probably better off than many of them who have been maimed for life because of a drinking spree. Because going out and meddling with something that has such a grave potential danger. I do not think that the person who meddled with the first drink ever did so with the thought of, I'm going to become an alcoholic, or I'm going to become a falling down drunk. The number of alcoholics in America today number close to nine million. People who can no longer hold down a job, can no longer support their families. People who are on their way to living in Skid Row. Add to that the millions of people all over the world who have been snared by alcoholism. It's become one of the major social problems of many of the nations of the world today. But you go down to Skid Row, and you talk to those that are lying there in the gutter. And the amazing thing is you will find men who were once medical doctors, men who were once lawyers, men who were once college professors, men who were once in the ministry. But they began to meddle with alcohol. Something that has the potential of destroying. Call it a sickness or whatever else you want to call it. The truth of the matter is they would not be there today had they not taken their first drink. Had they not meddled with alcohol in the beginning. Another great destroyer that people often meddle with is pornography. What a destroyer of families. And what an affront and an insult to a wife whose husband is there night after night on the internet entertaining himself as he is lusting after other women. First it's a curious look, maybe at a Playboy magazine. Meddling with the excitement that seeing the new body of a beautiful woman, but then losing all self-control, becoming mastered by the sexual urges that are the response to the pornography. And though it costs your marriage and your family, yet you can no longer control your lust and your desire for more explicit pornography. Every fool, Solomon said, will be meddling. Those that meddle with sex. This usually follows the meddling with pornography. And today, unfortunately, many children are beginning to meddle with sex as a result of the lyrics of the rap groups or the lyrics of the rock stars. And they go and they hear them advocating the experimenting with sex. And children as young as 9, 10 years old meddling with sexual experiences. I read a very sad article this week of a survey that was being done and a study that is being made of the increasing practice among children ages to 13 of engaging in oral sex. Having parties where they will pair off into bedrooms and get involved in oral sex. One of the surveys showed that 34% of the young girls 13 years old in a particular school confessed to having oral sex with some boy. The article declared that it was becoming a very common practice among young people today, but they don't consider it as having sex. They said President Clinton didn't consider it sex what he did with Monica Lewinsky. So many homes have been destroyed. Lives have been devastated as a result of extramarital affairs that all began with meddling with a flirtation. As Solomon said, every fool will be meddling. When you start flirting, when you start that kind of an activity, certainly it isn't in your mind. Well, I'm going to have a full blown extramarital affair with them. It's just sort of fun. It's just sort of exciting to see that someone shows an interest in you, but it becomes like an opiate. And ultimately you will find yourself with your family destroyed, your marriage destroyed, your children suffering tremendously because you dared to meddle with something like that. The Bible says, can man take fire into his bosom and not be burned? But one of the follies of meddling in promiscuous sex, of course, is the danger of getting a sexually transmitted disease. There are some 21 different sexually transmitted diseases that are being passed from person to person in the country today. And of course, some of them are deadly. With many of them, there are no cures. Becoming involved in promiscuous sex is like playing Russian roulette. You never know when the chamber is loaded with the bullet that's going to destroy you. The Bible tells us an interesting story of a foolish king who meddled to his own hurt. It's found in 2 Chronicles chapter 25. I'm beginning to read from verse 14. Now it came to pass after Amaziah the king of Judah was come from the slaughter of the Edomites, that he brought the gods of the children of Edom and he set them up as his gods. And he bowed himself down before them and he burned incense unto them. And therefore, the anger of the Lord was kindled against Amaziah. And he sent unto him a prophet, which said unto him, Why have you sought after the gods of the Edomites, which could not deliver their own people out of your hand? And as the prophet talked with him, Amaziah said unto him, Have you been made the king's counselor? Be quiet, for why should you be smitten? Then the prophet stopped and he said, I know that God is determined to destroy you because you have done this. You've not hearkened to my counsel. And then Amaziah the king of Judah sent messengers to Joash the king of Israel saying, I challenge you to come and fight with me. And Joash the king of Israel sent a message back saying, The thistle in Lebanon said to the cedar in Lebanon, Give your daughter to my son as his wife. And there passed by a wild beast in Lebanon and trampled down the thistle. You are heady because you have smitten the Edomites. Your heart is lifted up in pride. Stay at home. Enjoy your victory. Why should you meddle to your own hurt? That you should fall and take Judah down with you. But Amaziah would not listen to him, for it was the will of God to deliver him into the hand of his enemy because he worshipped the gods of Edom. So Joash the king of Israel went up and they met one another face to face, both he and Amaziah the king of Judah at Beth Shemesh, which is in Judah. And the men of Judah were defeated by Israel. Every man fled to his tent. And Joash the king of Israel was captured by Amaziah the king of Judah. And he brought him to Jerusalem. And he broke down the wall of Jerusalem from the gate of Ephraim to the corner gate, about 200 yards. And he took all of the gold and the silver and all of the vessels that were found in the house of God and the treasures of the king's house and hostages also. And he returned to Samaria. And so we see King Amaziah meddling and the tragic price that he had to pay for his meddling. It all began when he conquered Edom, but he brought back some of their idols, their images that represented their gods. The little image of Mammon, which represented the God of pleasure, the little image of Molech, the God of pleasure, Mammon, the God of power, the images of Ashereth, the goddess of sex. And he began to worship these gods, meddling in the worship of false gods, allowing these passions, the desire for pleasure, the desire for power, the desire for sex, allowing these to begin to master him. They began to become the paramount things of his life. Meddling to his own hurt. Today, we see people that are meddling also in the worship of other gods. And I might say the same gods, people who are worshiping pleasure. That's become the most important thing in their life. People who are worshiping power to get ahead, to have more. People that are worshiping Ashereth, the goddess of sex, and meddling around with these things to their own destruction. This meddling with these other gods cost him his relationship with Jehovah. Jehovah said, thou shalt have no other gods before me. God will not take second place in your life. He's not interested in second place in your life. God is interested in first place in your life. The first commandment, thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, with all thy soul, with all thy mind, and with all thy strength. God first and above all other gods. Thou shalt have no other gods, he said, before me. He won't take second place. But so many times a person is guilty of sort of relegating second place to God. If it's convenient, then I'll be there to worship God. If it's convenient, but he's not a God of convenience. He is a God that demands the first love of your life. Note how that the Lord had warned him of the danger of his meddling. He sent a prophet to him. The prophet said, how is it that you are worshiping the God of the Edomites? These gods were not able to deliver them out of your hand. How foolish. But rather than listening to the prophet, he threatened him. Either shut up or you'll be smitten. And then foolishly, he began to meddle with strife. He was sort of flush with victory. He had defeated the Edomites. He had brought back their God of mammon power. And he wanted to show that power and exercise that power. So he sent to Joash, the king of Samaria. And he challenged him. Come and let's face off against each other. Come and let's fight one another. And Joash sent back a message. Sort of little boy. Stay home. Just enjoy the victory that you have. For the thistle, the weed, the wild weed said to this magnificent cedar of Lebanon. I want you to give your daughter to my son as his wife. But a wild beast came and he crushed the weed. He trumped it down. In other words, you're just a little pipsqueak. You're just a little weed and you're challenging me for a fight. Stay home. Yes, you did defeat the Edomites. Now just stay home and enjoy your victory. For why should you meddle to your own hurt? And so here the king of Samaria warns him against meddling. It can only hurt you. When I was in high school, I established a criteria for the things that I would do and the things that I would not do. The criteria was this. If it can't do me any good, but it could do me harm, then don't do it. If it can't do me any harm, but could do me good, then go ahead and do it. And many times when kids would come and want me to engage in activities with them, and I'd say, no, I don't care to. They would say, well, why not, Smith? I'd say, well, it could do harm and I can't see that it could do any good. And so I'm not interested. Other times I'd say, oh, that sounds great. Let's do it. Because I could look at it and say, well, it can't do me any harm, but it could do me good. And so go ahead. And that was the criteria I set for my life when I was back in high school. And I followed that to the present day. In spite of the warnings, Amaziah persisted to meddle with strife. He insisted on a fight with the king of Israel. And so they met at Beth Shemesh and there Amaziah and his troops were soundly defeated. And we see the price he had to pay for meddling. For first of all, his forces were defeated in battle. But more than that, the enemy troops came to Jerusalem and they tore down a large section of the wall, some 200 yards. And thus he lost a great part of his defenses. The valuable treasures were taken. And this, of course, cost him treasures that he had amassed. And this is so often the case. Meddling will cost you a part of your defenses and it will cost you valuable treasures. When you begin to meddle and put other things above the things of God, you allow them to supersede your love for the things of God. You're beginning to worship the gods of the Edomites. You are headed toward defeat. Not only will you be defeated in the battle, but the enemy will take and destroy a part of your defenses. The first time you began to meddle with drugs or alcohol or sex, there was a real struggle. You found this inner turmoil. You were being torn apart. You knew it was wrong. You didn't want to do it. You fought against doing it, but somehow you succumbed. And afterwards, you felt such guilt and such remorse. However, the next time you didn't fight quite so hard. You see, a part of your defenses were destroyed because you had done it once. And if you do it once, it's easier than to do it twice. And then easier to do it the next time and the next time and the next time. Until things reverse. And now you can't stop doing it. Now you've been ensnared by that practice. Now it has mastered over you. As we studied last Wednesday night in Romans. Don't you realize that whatever you yield yourself servants to obey, his servants you become? Whether it be of sin unto unrighteousness or of obedience unto righteousness. When you yield yourself to do these things, they have the tendency of enslaving you. You're no longer doing them because you're getting pleasure. But now you are bound. Now you can't stop doing them. Now you are in the gutters of Skid Row. Now you are in a crack house someplace. Now you are living with your family destroyed. You never intended that. But that's what happens when a person begins to meddle. And every fool, Solomon said, will be meddling. Not only that. But the enemy came and took his treasures. He carried the treasures away to Samaria. And I think of how the treasures are lost when we begin to meddle. That beautiful treasure of purity. No longer are you pure. That wonderful treasure of close, intimate fellowship with God. It's been lost. With the young person, it is often the loss of that wonderful treasure of virginity. All because of meddling. As Solomon said, every fool will be meddling. But what a foolish thing it is to meddle. To meddle. Many of you today have been guilty of meddling with evil things. Some of you are guilty today of doing things that at one time you swore you would never do that. And now you're doing it almost on a daily basis. Worse, you've been doing it so long that some of you have been snared by that thing that you started meddling with. It now has a grip on you. It has a hold on your life. And though you've been trying to quit, you find that you don't have the capacity or the power to quit. Because now you've become a slave to that thing that you once played with and meddled with. Some of you have been doing it so long you no longer feel guilty. You no longer feel the remorse. You have what Paul described as a conscience that has been seared with a hot iron. And that's a dangerous place to be. When you can sin and not feel the pangs of conscience over it. When you've done it so long, it doesn't bother you to do it anymore. And we see that demonstrated where people almost become proud of their evil. They prayed in the streets. Flaunting their evil practices that began with meddling years ago. Like Samson, flirting around with danger. Flirting so long that it said he knew not that the Spirit of God had departed from him. But he went out and was defeated before the enemy because he had meddled too much, too long. Before you get to that place, as was Solomon, the very fact that you're here today would indicate that God is still dealing with you. That there is still that openness in your heart. To hear the word of God, that's good. You're not yet like Amaziah that said to the prophet, just shut up, don't talk to us about this. You're hearing it. But before you go too far, I would encourage you today to consider what you're doing. Allowing God to be sort of shoved to the background, giving him sort of second place will lead to your meddling with other things that will ultimately bring you into bondage and destroy you. Stop being a meddling fool before it's too late. And you are destroyed. Father, we ask that today your Holy Spirit might now take your word and burn it into our hearts. And Lord, if there are, and we do know that there are here today, people who have been meddling around with sin. They've been playing with fire. And Lord, before it's too late, we ask Lord that you would deliver them from their folly and help them Lord this day to cast their burdens upon you and to bring the issues before you and to repent Lord before you and to confess their sin and to receive the forgiveness and the pardon that you offer in Jesus name we pray. Amen.