God Can Keep Me From Sinning<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"January 7, 2016 Genesis 20:1-7 God comes to Abimelech and warns him that he will die because the woman he has taken is married (Genesis 20:3). The fact is\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"God Can Keep Me From Sinning\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"January 7, 2016 Genesis 20:1-7 God comes to Abimelech and warns him that he will die because the woman he has taken is married (Genesis 20:3). The fact is\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Jim Erwin\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:author\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/revjimerwin\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2016-01-07T20:28:05+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Jim Erwin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@revjimerwin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Jim Erwin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/\",\"name\":\"God Can Keep Me From Sinning\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2016-01-07T20:28:05+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2016-01-07T20:28:05+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#\/schema\/person\/d60794d59235a0279dec26398d994dcb\"},\"description\":\"January 7, 2016 Genesis 20:1-7 God comes to Abimelech and warns him that he will die because the woman he has taken is married (Genesis 20:3). The fact is\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"God Can Keep Me From Sinning\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/\",\"name\":\"Jim Erwin\",\"description\":\"\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#\/schema\/person\/d60794d59235a0279dec26398d994dcb\",\"name\":\"Jim Erwin\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/70772a6e533e4bcbd0ac0e0af2d62ff1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/70772a6e533e4bcbd0ac0e0af2d62ff1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Jim Erwin\"},\"description\":\"My name is Jim Erwin. Welcome to my site patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin. You can look around this site and find out more about me. I am a country postmodern pastor in the digital world. I am a Christian, husband to a wonderful wife, father of four wonderful girls, mentor to new Christian leaders, and pastor of a local church. I pastor Washburn First Baptist Church in Washburn, Missouri in the beautiful area of the state called the Ozarks. I am also the Executive Secretary of International Baptist Church Ministries. I am a graduate of University of Houston, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I am also a graduate of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Doctor of Ministry in Church Planting.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/revjimerwin\/\",\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/revjimerwin\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/author\/jerwin\/\"}]}<\/script>\n","yoast_head_json":{"title":"God Can Keep Me From Sinning","description":"January 7, 2016 Genesis 20:1-7 God comes to Abimelech and warns him that he will die because the woman he has taken is married (Genesis 20:3). The fact is","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"God Can Keep Me From Sinning","og_description":"January 7, 2016 Genesis 20:1-7 God comes to Abimelech and warns him that he will die because the woman he has taken is married (Genesis 20:3). The fact is","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/","og_site_name":"Jim Erwin","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/revjimerwin\/","article_published_time":"2016-01-07T20:28:05+00:00","author":"Jim Erwin","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@revjimerwin","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Jim Erwin","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/","name":"God Can Keep Me From Sinning","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#website"},"datePublished":"2016-01-07T20:28:05+00:00","dateModified":"2016-01-07T20:28:05+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#\/schema\/person\/d60794d59235a0279dec26398d994dcb"},"description":"January 7, 2016 Genesis 20:1-7 God comes to Abimelech and warns him that he will die because the woman he has taken is married (Genesis 20:3). The fact is","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"God Can Keep Me From Sinning"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/","name":"Jim Erwin","description":"","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#\/schema\/person\/d60794d59235a0279dec26398d994dcb","name":"Jim Erwin","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/70772a6e533e4bcbd0ac0e0af2d62ff1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/70772a6e533e4bcbd0ac0e0af2d62ff1?s=96&d=identicon&r=g","caption":"Jim Erwin"},"description":"My name is Jim Erwin. Welcome to my site patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin. You can look around this site and find out more about me. I am a country postmodern pastor in the digital world. I am a Christian, husband to a wonderful wife, father of four wonderful girls, mentor to new Christian leaders, and pastor of a local church. I pastor Washburn First Baptist Church in Washburn, Missouri in the beautiful area of the state called the Ozarks. I am also the Executive Secretary of International Baptist Church Ministries. I am a graduate of University of Houston, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I am also a graduate of Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with a Doctor of Ministry in Church Planting.","sameAs":["https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/revjimerwin\/","https:\/\/twitter.com\/revjimerwin"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/author\/jerwin\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6756","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2886"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6756"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6756\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6756"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6756"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6756"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}

{"id":6756,"date":"2016-01-07T14:28:05","date_gmt":"2016-01-07T20:28:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/?p=6756"},"modified":"2016-01-07T14:28:05","modified_gmt":"2016-01-07T20:28:05","slug":"god-can-keep-me-from-sinning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/jimerwin\/2016\/01\/07\/god-can-keep-me-from-sinning\/","title":{"rendered":"God Can Keep Me From Sinning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

January 7, 2016<\/p>\n

Genesis 20:1-7<\/p>\n

God comes to Abimelech<\/a> and warns him that he will die because the woman he has taken is married (Genesis 20:3). The fact is that Abimelech didn\u2019t approach her (Genesis 20:4). So why did God say that He would destroy a nation when Abimelech didn\u2019t do anything wrong?<\/p>\n

It is because Abimelech\u2019s heart was tempted to desire Sarah. How do I know this? For a couple of reasons. First, you can see that Abimelech starts making excuses (Genesis 20:5). And even though Abimelech had a learn conscience and clean hands (Genesis 20:5), that doesn\u2019t mean he wasn\u2019t tempted.<\/p>\n

God knows this and warns Abimelech in the dream (Genesis 20:6). Here, God reveals that God Himself keep Abimelech from sinning. This is important because we can trick ourselves in temptation. The devil can tempt us and we can tempt ourselves. So God takes it upon Himself to help us.<\/p>\n

Why did God warn Abimelech in a dream? Because his sin was soon going to get Abimelech into trouble. (Genesis 20:7).<\/p>\n

This is why God steps in to keep us from sinning. He knows how dangerous we are to ourselves. Of course, there are times when God allows us to experience the consequences of our sin. But many times, because He is a gracious and merciful God, He takes the effort to keep us from sinning, and then warning us about the consequences of what would happen when we engage in sin.<\/p>\n

In this case, the sin was sexual. Sexual sin can cause enormous consequences. In this case, sleeping with Sarah would have disrupted God\u2019s plan for Abraham and Sarah<\/a> (Genesis 21:1-2). Not only would it have hurt their union, but it would have disrupted the direction that God had set for salvation to come into the world.<\/p>\n

This story tells us of the importance of temptation and taking God\u2019s warning seriously. May I learn to ask God to help me when I am tempted.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"