“Enduring Temptation”

1. (V12) Blessed is the man who endures temptation

What do you think the word endure means?

a) Endure means: Persevere under the trial or resist, stand firm by holding your ground

Can you think of a time when you have been tempted to do something you know is wrong, but you endured and did not give in or a time when you gave into it

Disobeying your parents

Taking something that doesn’t belong to you

Being a distraction, to drawl attention to yourself

Being mean or rude to someone

Illustration: I stop eating at 5pm and I can’t eat breakfast until 9am, but what happens in the middle of the night I wake up and can’t go back to sleep.

b) Blessed: The Bible tells us that we are blessed when we endure temptation?

James 1:3–4 “knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking nothing.”

We are blessed as we develop Christ like character as we endure temptation

Plus we receive eternal life

c) Love is our motivation to endure

1.2 (V13) God does not and cannot tempt us to sin

God’s nature is holy or set apart, without sin

1.3 (V14) But each one is drawn away by his own desire and enticed

a) Temptation is not sin

b) God given desires

We have God given desires, such as to eat when your hungry, or drink when your thirsty and without that God given desire you would die

c) Drawn away carries with the idea of the baiting of a trap and enticed, in the original Greek means to bait a hook

The hook is concealed with bait making it look appealing

Illustration: The bait conceals the hook, the fish comes along and see this delicious piece of bait. The fish bites on the bait and now they are hooked and drawn away

1.4 (V15) When desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin and sin brings forth death

a) James describes this process of sin in four stages

Desire (V14)

The normal desires of life were given and without them we would die)

Deception (v14)

Temptation always carries with it natural bait that appeals to our natural desire

Disobedience (V15)

Desire conceives a method for taking the bait and the act results in sin

Death (V15)

Disobedience gives birth to death

Romans 6:23 “For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”