Delighting is Fighting: How to Kill Sin by Enjoying God

A Skater Punk’s Anthem

Before I knew Christ, I was a skater punk. In those days, the soundtrack of my life mainly consisted of classic ’70s rock. If I had to pinpoint one set of lyrics that served as my skater punk anthem, it would be the following from Billy Joel’s “Only the Good Die Young”:

And they say there’s a heaven for those who will wait.
Some say it’s better, but I say it ain’t.
I’d rather laugh with the sinners than cry with the saints.
The sinners are much more fun.

The worldview behind this anthem tells us one of the most soul-destroying lies ever. It tells us that there is more joy in sin than in sainthood.

As a teenage skater punk, I believed this lie wholeheartedly. In my mind, God was just an inconvenient nuisance getting in the way of all the delights the world was offering me.

For a while, the anthem rang true: the sin was much more fun. But the longer the anthem played, and the more I marched to it, the less true it became. And before I knew it, I found myself in the place where the anthem was taking me all along: a world of darkness, hopelessness, and pain.

The lie that indulging in sin will bring you more joy than believing in Christ still pervades our world today. I would be surprised if you have not been tempted to believe it.

How do we combat this lie? How do we resist its call?

The answer is: you need a new anthem. It goes like this: delighting is fighting.

One of the most powerful ways to fight the draw of sin is to fight for delight in God. Because when we engage in this fight, what we find is that the joys God offers to us through Christ are infinitely greater than anything this world has to offer.

Let me prove this by sharing several of those joys with you.

1. The joy of God’s presence.

You make known to me the path of life; in your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore (Psalm 16:11).

Psalm 16 has been revolutionary in my life and in my fight against sin.

In the psalm, David meditates on the many sorrows of those who run after other gods and the abundant joys of those who commit themselves to the Lord. As he concludes the psalm in verse 11, he quantifies the delight experienced by those who draw near to the Lord: “In your presence there is fullness of joy; at your right hand are pleasures forevermore.”

When you draw near to God by faith, the Bible says that you will experience infinite joy and eternal pleasure. This is revolutionary. Why would you ever settle for sin when the Lord offers you immeasurable joy and unending delight through faith in him?

This verse provides us with one of the most powerful weapons for fighting and killing sin. Whenever you are tempted to sin, you can wield the Psalm 16:11 test: Will this sin provide what nearness to God will provide? Will it provide infinite joy and eternal pleasure? The answer will always be no. This answer will give you power to turn from that sin and to draw near to the God in whom there is fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore.

Delighting is fighting. When we recognize the infinite joy and eternal pleasure that nearness with God provides, the draw of sin is greatly diminished.

2. The joy of God’s sufficiency.

For my people have committed two evils: they have forsaken me, the fountain of living waters, and hewed out cisterns for themselves, broken cisterns that can hold no water (Jeremiah 2:13).

Jeremiah wrote his prophecy during a time when the people of Israel had a serious idolatry problem. They had forsaken God and had begun to worship the false gods of the surrounding nations.

As Jeremiah called the people to repent of this idolatry, he used this metaphor to help them understand their foolishness. Not only had they forsaken the fountain of living waters, but now they were trying to satisfy their spiritual thirst with broken containers that could hold no water.

If you’ve ever had a season in your life when you’ve been stuck in sin, you know exactly what Jeremiah is talking about. You think that the sin is going to satisfy the longings of your heart, but it just leaves you spiritually parched and dry. You expected a fountain of joy and life, but really it just turned out to be a pit of misery and death.

The reason for this is that you were made for something so much greater. You were made to be satisfied in God himself. Anything less will always leave you wanting more.

In his Confessions, Augustine said it this way: “You have made us for yourself, O Lord, and our heart is restless until it rests in you.”

When you are tempted to seek satisfaction from the pleasures of sin, you need to remember that God is the all-sufficient, all-satisfying fountain of life and joy. In him, and in him alone, will you find satisfaction.

One of the most helpful ways to identify and battle sin is to identify the “broken cisterns” in your life. What are you tempted to run to for joy and satisfaction? What are you tempted to hope in when things are hard? The Lord invites you to turn from those things and to find true joy and delight in him.

Delighting is fighting. Run to the fountain of living waters and let your soul be satisfied in him.

3. The joy of God’s reward.

By faith Moses, when he was grown up, refused to be called the son of Pharaoh’s daughter, choosing rather to be mistreated with the people of God than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin. He considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward (Hebrews 11:24-26).

In Egypt, Moses could have counted himself as Pharaoh’s grandson and enjoyed the fleeting pleasures of sin. But instead, he chose to obey God and experience persecution as a result. Why would Moses be willing to do that? The author of Hebrews tells us why: because he considered the reproach of Christ greater wealth than the treasures of Egypt, for he was looking to the reward.

Moses made a calculation. Which stock has a greater return? The stock of sin or the stock of Christ? Sin does provide fleeting pleasures. There is some return on the investment. But Christ offers the infinite reward of knowing him forever.

When we choose to turn from sin and invest our lives in Christ, we gain the greatest reward in the universe. We gain Christ.

When you are tempted to sin, consider this question: What will be the return on this investment in ten million years? The wages of sin is death. But the reward of faith in Christ is eternal life.

Delighting is fighting. When we look to the delightful reward of eternal life in Christ, the fleeting pleasures of sin lose their luster.

The Anthem of Delight

What is the anthem of your life?

Many of us face moments when the call of skater punk’s anthem is tempting. Is the sin much more fun?

But let me challenge you to march to a better anthem – the anthem of delight.

Delighting is fighting. When we delight ourselves in the Lord, the power of sin is broken by the force of superior joy in Christ.