Temptation

Good morning to you all, my dear brothers and sisters, and our Lord Jesus Christ.

This morning I want to talk about being tempted and temptation itself, as well as what action we take from the temptation we face. The Oxford dictionary defines temptation as “the desire to do or have something that you know is bad or wrong”. What temptation would be the most difficult? Is it alcohol, maybe laziness, or that favourite food you really like but know you probably shouldn’t have? I would like you all to picture yourself walking down the road, you pass a shop with a nice piece of clothing that you like. Do you go in and buy it? Maybe it’s that shiny sports car you have always wanted, not only is it available on the yard right now, it is even on sale. How much do you want that car? What action do you take towards this? Maybe it’s a new computer or the latest TV? What about a trip locally or even overseas and flights have never been cheaper? The thing is brothers and sisters, temptation is surrounding us everywhere we look in our daily lives, and if we don’t keep watch for it this could have disastrous results for us spiritually.

Let us look at a few examples that have been recorded for us all to learn from:

I would like to start by looking at Abraham. If you would like to turn with me to Genesis 22: 1–13 “And it came to pass after these things, that God did tempt Abraham, and said unto him, Abraham: and he said, Behold, here I am. And he said, Take now thy son, thine only son Isaac, whom thou lovest, and get thee into the land of Moriah; and offer him there for a burnt offering upon one of the mountains which I will tell thee of. And Abraham rose up early in the morning, and saddled his ass, and took two of his young men with him, and Isaac his son, and clave the wood for the burnt offering, and rose up, and went unto the place of which God had told him. Then on the third day Abraham lifted up his eyes, and saw the place afar off. And Abraham said unto his young men, Abide ye here with the ass; and I and the lad will go yonder and worship, and come again to you. And Abraham took the wood of the burnt offering, and laid it upon Isaac his son; and he took the fire in his hand, and a knife; and they went both of them together. And Isaac spake unto Abraham his father, and said, My father: and he said, Here am I, my son. And he said, Behold the fire and the wood: but where is the lamb for a burnt offering? And Abraham said, My son, God will provide himself a lamb for a burnt offering: so they went both of them together. And they came to the place which God had told him of; and Abraham built an altar there, and laid the wood in order, and bound Isaac his son, and laid him on the altar upon the wood. And Abraham stretched forth his hand, and took the knife to slay his son. And the angel of the LORD called unto him out of heaven, and said, Abraham, Abraham: and he said, Here am I. And he said, Lay not thine hand upon the lad, neither do thou any thing unto him: for now I know that thou fearest God, seeing thou hast not withheld thy son, thine only son from me. And Abraham lifted up his eyes, and looked, and behold behind him a ram caught in a thicket by his horns: and Abraham went and took the ram, and offered him up for a burnt offering in the stead of his son.

I would like to break this down a little bit as there are some really key moments we can see in this passage. I find verse 2 has so much impact for me: Here was God asking Abraham to offer his only son as a sacrifice. One that he was willing to make despite the pain and anguish this would cause. Why? Because God asked it of him. Even the thought of carrying out, this action must have brought these feelings to the fore front of Abraham’s mind. What happens next is not something I can say I would be that keen to do. Here is Abraham, faced with this terrible task ahead of him, yet he gets up early. I can’t speak for everyone here, but personally, if I have something to do in the morning that I am not excited to do - let’s take work as an example - I don’t exactly get up early for this, which if my snooze button on the alarm could talk I am sure it would tell you the same thing. Yet here is Abraham rising early to head out on this journey, which on face value, appears to be leading to the death of his son. As we move forward in this passage we find Abraham not only cuts wood for the burnt offering of his son, but he builds the alter, lays the wood upon it, binds Isaac, and lays him upon this alter. He gets right to that point of holding the knife before him, ready to carry out the test God put before him, when the angel intervenes and they find the ram caught in the thicket which is sacrificed instead. What must have been going through his mind at this time? Was he conflicted between the love he had for his son and the love he has for God to carry out his will regardless of the personal sacrifice? We can only imagine how hard this must have been for him. We can also see the parallel this holds to God & Christ, as Isaac is the son who is being sacrificed despite not being deserving of death in this situation. John 3:16 is a reminder of what God gave for us. “For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.”

I am sure that you are familiar with the story of Ananias & Sapphira, so let us take a moment to look at this. We are told in Acts 4:32 - And the multitude of them that believed were of one heart and of one soul: neither said any of them that ought of the things which he possessed was his own; but they had all things common. Moving forward to Acts 4: 34-35 - Neither was there any among them that lacked: for as many as were possessors of lands or houses sold them, and brought the prices of the things that were sold, And laid them down at the apostles' feet: and distribution was made unto every man according as he had need. So here we have this multitude of people selling everything they owned and bringing the proceeds before the apostles. For some I can imagine this would be a large amount, while for others we can assume this would be a lesser amount.

Moving into Acts 5 we are introduced to Ananias and Sapphira when they sold their possession, but instead of bringing the entire amount of proceeds and putting it at the apostle’s feet, Ananias withholds a portion of the money, which Sapphira was also aware of. What does Peter ask him?

We find this out in Acts 5:1-5 - But a certain man named Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession, And kept back part of the price, his wife also being privy to it, and brought a certain part, and laid it at the apostles' feet. But Peter said, Ananias, why hath Satan filled thine heart to lie to the Holy Spirit, and to keep back part of the price of the land? Whiles it remained, was it not thine own? and after it was sold, was it not in thine own power? why hast thou conceived this thing in thine heart? thou hast not lied unto men, but unto God. And Ananias hearing these words fell down, and gave up the spirit: and great fear came on all them that heard these things. So here was this man who had all this money in front of him, the temptation to keep some of it back for himself was too great and he paid the ultimate price for it with his life. What of his wife Sapphira? Remember we were told in verse 2 that she was privy to it. So she understood what was happening and what Ananias was doing, yet she too fell for the temptation of this money and the possession of it. She also paid for it with her life.

The Bible challenges us to control and direct our desires towards doing good rather than evil. We are all responsible for our own thoughts, as well as how we respond to these. The Bible also teaches us that any evil thoughts we have are our own and they are not placed in our mind by someone or something else. If we can recognise the source of our sinful thoughts this is a good start towards overcoming it. The things we see can influence these thoughts; we need to focus on the desire to do the right thing.

The Lord’s Prayer contains the plea “lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil.” This very instruction that is on record for us from Jesus shows that we need to ask God to help us keep away from influences and environments that we might find tempting. This prayer also makes us aware that we should expect to fight the sinful temptation. We should ask God for His help in overcoming it and being led away from the circumstances that will cause us difficulty in serving our God.

God does allow us to be tempted as this tests our faith, and the desire we have to turn away from our sinful nature to serve him. However, he does prevent the temptation from becoming too much for us to handle. No matter what situation you are in, whatever the challenge you face, know that you can overcome this with God’s help, if we reach out in prayer and ask for it - “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13. This is something very special and powerful isn’t it brothers and sisters, to know that God is with us always and that if we ask for His help He is always there for us.

Temptations come from within our own thoughts. Our surroundings can and do influence our thoughts, therefore we should all be careful of what we surround ourselves with, as well as the people we keep company with - as these also have an impact on our lives as well as our thoughts. It could be easy to alter our way of thinking if we are in situations or around others that are not thinking or acting in a Godly manner. We are all instructed to follow the example of Jesus and overcome temptations. One way we can achieve this is to replace the temptation to sin with a desire to do what is right and with Godly thoughts. Remember that God wants us to pray for His help and guidance, both of which He is more than willing to provides to us with.

Speaking of temptation and the example that Jesus set for us, let us take a look at this for a moment. Matthew 4: 1-11 gives us the account of what Jesus faced here and how he overcomes this temptation. He spent forty days and forty nights fasting before he faced this temptation. Just thinking quickly on this matter, I can’t speak for everyone here but I know personally that I can become ‘hangry’ when I am faced with a lack of food and my stomach is growling. I become short, irritable and can open my mouth before I engage my brain. How does Jesus react given the situation he finds himself in? Does he get aggressive or have a short snappy answer? No not all. Matt 4:3-4 “If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread. But he answered and said, It is written, Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of God.” This response reminds us all that we need more than food to sustain our lives and we should be focused on hearing what our Heavenly Father wants of us and doing His will. It is through these actions that we shall ‘truly live’.

Moving forward Jesus was to be tempted an additional two times and each time his response directs us back to God.

It is important for us all to remember that as long as we are in this world we are exposed to temptations, and we need to be on watch against them. If we cannot recognise what tempts us in our lives, then we are not in a position to be able to address it. Temptation in the bible is like that of the word ‘trial’ with us being put to the test. As we have previously read in Genesis 22 - Thus God “tempted Abraham” and afflictions are said to tempt or to try, us and therefore putting our faith and patience to the test. We should look at these trials or tests as a blessing to help shape us and mould us into a more Christ like person, as we develop the skills needed to enter into the kingdom to come.

To put this in a different way, we need to replace our ungodly thinking with Godly thinking. The key to overcoming temptation is to fill our minds with the things of God. Paul wrote “we take captive every thought to make it obedient to Christ.” 2 Corinthians 10:5 NIV. If we are to master temptation and triumph over it we must learn to control our minds and think about good things. I cannot think of a better verse to sum this up than that found in Philippians 4:8 - Finally, brothers and sisters, whatever is true, whatever is noble, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is admirable—if anything is excellent or praiseworthy—think about such things.

The important part of any temptation that we face ourselves with is not the fact that we have been tempted in the first place, but how we deal with that temptation is the key part. Temptation itself is not sinful, otherwise Jesus himself who we are here to remember would have sinned. If he had sinned then his death would have been for nothing, as he would not have been the sinless sacrifice that God required to carry out His plan and he would not have been raised from the dead either. Had he sinned he would have been worthy of death - for the wages of sin is death. Before us all here today is the bread and wine which are the symbols of Christ’s body which was broken on account of our sin, and the wine which symbolises the blood that was poured out on our behalf. It is through his life and the fact he overcame the temptation of sin, that each and every one of us has the hope of the kingdom to come.

One final thought brothers and sisters is taken from James 1: 12-16 - Blessed is the man that endureth temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord hath promised to them that love him. Let no man say when he is tempted, I am tempted of God: for God cannot be tempted with evil, neither tempteth he any man: But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it bringeth forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.