Sermon Tone Analysis

TITLE: “Five Easy Steps to Ruin Your Life” (focus on Satan’s tactics / overcoming temptation)

TEXT: ; ;

SERIES: “Tempted & Fallen” Series

STICKY STATEMENT: God offers to save us from sinful self-destruction.

INTRO: Please open your Bibles again in to Genesis, chapter 3. We are in the middle of a three week series entitled, “Tempted and Fallen.”

Last week we looked at the “fallen” part: Mankind is fallen into sin, but despite mankind’s fall, God’s grace is still available through Jesus Christ.

Today we are focusing on how to battle temptation.

Since we are at church, you may be anticipating a message about how to resist temptation.

Strangely, we are actually going to do the opposite.

We are going to see in a fool-proof plan for falling into sin every time - five easy steps to ruin our lives.

I am hoping that exploring how to ruin our lives, will help us see clearly how to live our lives.

DISCLAIMER: These “steps” are what not to do.

For joy, do the opposite!

None of us begin with the goal to ruin our lives.

It just happens automatically when we choose to live lives that are not centered on Christ.

Today’s message is entitled, “Five Easy Steps to Ruin Your Life.” [Read ]

* Before we get to the five east steps, a little REALITY CHECK: The godless culture around us, the sinful nature within us, and the Evil One (Satan) against us are all committed to helping us ruin our lives…

If it is your goal to ruin your life, I have good news for you!

You are going to have all kinds of outside help.

First, we have the godless culture that surrounds us.

Since the day of Adam and Eve’s sin in the Garden, we live in a sinful, cursed and broken world.

Our culture is in conflict with the holy standard of living God desires for us.

Almost everything in the culture around us is either outright contradictory to the things of God or is asking us to compromise the things of God to fit into culture.

If we are going to live godly lives, “going with the flow” of culture, is not an option.

The world around us is more than willing to help us ruin our lives.

Second, there is the sinful nature within each of us.

The Bible makes it clear that every person on the planet is born a sinner.

By nature, we are rebels against God.

We are born with broken decision makers - our very lives are bent away from the things of God.

Sometimes we Christians act confused when people without Jesus live like they don’t know Jesus.

Actually that scenario makes sense.

It should confuse us when Christians live like they don’t know Christ!

And yet, even those of us who know Christ, still struggle with sin.

Becoming a Christian means we have a new life in Christ and Holy Spirit to help us live victoriously over temptation and sin.

At the same time, there is a war raging within us between the old desires of our pre-Christian lives, and God’s Spirit within us ().

The sinful nature within us is more than willing to help us ruin our lives.

Third, there is Satan, the devil, the Evil One, a fallen angel, the enemy of God and man.

He despises the fact that we are made in God’s image and have the ability to reflect God’s glory.

His goal is to steal, kill, and destroy everything that is precious to the heart of God and that includes me and you.

In , Jesus taught us to pray: 13 ...lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from the evil one.

Satan and his demons are always willing to lend a hand to help us ruin our lives.

If we ever make it our goal to live ruined lives we will have lots of help.

Step 1: Edit God’s Word to Meet your Personal Needs ():

(Follow Satan’s model: Doubt it, subtract from it, outright deny it if you can!) One of Satan’s favorite lies: “Did God really say?” = ...He was a murderer from the beginning, and has nothing to do with the truth, because there is no truth in him.

When he lies, he speaks out of his own character, for he is a liar and the father of lies.”

A) Doubt God’s Word (3:1): Satan loves to destroy our lives.

He loves to destroy our faith.

He is an expert at it.

Ruining ours lives, is his speciality.

Doubting God’s Word is essential to ruining your life.

You must question whether or not “absolute truth” even exists.

Just assume that all truth is relative.

Research (Barna) says, “Only one-third of all adults (34%) believe that moral truth is absolute and unaffected by the circumstances.

Slightly less than half of the born again adults (46%) believe in absolute moral truth”- Thus, as you doubt God’s word and question truth, you will have lots of company!

B) Add to God’s Word (3:2-3): V2-3: Eve added a phrase to God’s command, “and you must not touch it.”

The first legalist.

She added to God’s word.

(A legalist is a person who cannot distinguish between biblical commands and biblical convictions.)

We must be careful to not add extra rules to God’s Word.

Some people ruin their lives and eternity because they have thrown out God’s Word and live immorally.

Others people ruin their lives and eternity because they were so “good,” moral, and self-righteous they never saw their need for Jesus.

The Gospel says that all have sinned, none are good enough, and all need Jesus as our Forgiver and King.

C) Subtract from God’s Word - Outright deny it if you can (3:4): Satan outright contradicts’s God’s word, “You will not die if you sin.” = : 16 And the LORD God commanded the man, “You are free to eat from any tree in the garden; 17 but you must not eat from the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, for when you eat from it you will certainly die.”

ILLUS: Most of us have some truths in God’s Word that we wish we could tweak a little.

“I don’t like what God’s Word says about…_________.”

What would you put in the blank?

Sin (in general), Overeating, Gossip, Hatred, Lust, Adultery, Forgiveness, Taxes, Tithing, Sharing Your Faith, etc, etc.

APPLY: Satan has been and will always be a deceiver.

His goal is to trick us into ruining our lives.

How can we know if Satan is deceiving us?

Listen to what Paul wrote to the church in Corinth.

: ”3But I am afraid that as the serpent deceived Eve by his cunning, your thoughts will be led astray from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.”

Paul feared that some believers would be deceived, and led away from a sincere and pure devotion to Christ.

Three questions: 1) Can you think of a time in your life when you were closer to God than you are today?

2) What happened?

3) What is God’s next right step for you?

What should a Christian believe about the Bible?

It is God-breathed and essential for life.

: 16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the servant of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work.

God is holy, perfect and true.

God breathed out the Bible.

Thus, the Bible is true.

The Bible does not merely contain God’s Word- it IS God’s Word.

APPLY: What role will the Word of God have in our lives?

We must choose: 1) Will we place Word of God first and let our lives be edited by it?

Or 2) Will we place our personal desires first and edit God’s Word to accommodate our sin?

Either choice has huge consequences.

When we love God’s Word and ask Holy Spirit to help us live obedient lives, we experience joy, fulfillment, and holiness in our lives.

On the other hand, when we take our own desires, our wants, our dreams, and our goals, and then bend, twist, and edit God’s word to accommodate what we want… we are well on your way to ruining your life.

Step 2: Always Assume that God is “keeping” His best from you ()

(Develop the attitude, “God is ‘cheating’ me and does not have my best interests at heart.)

In verse 5, Satan makes three counterclaims: 1) “You will not surely die!” 2) “Your eyes will be opened.”

3) “You will gain what belongs to God.” Notice what Satan is implying: “If God really loved you, Eve, He would be much more generous.

God is holding out on you!” Satan wanted Eve to forget that God said they could eat freely from the trees of the Garden.

Satan wanted the woman - and us to believe that God is a killjoy who prevents us from experiencing the best things of life.

This is the crux of step 2.

To achieve step two, you need to believe that God does not have your best interests at heart.

You need to develop the attitude that God is cheating you out of something He probably owes you.

Whatever happens in life, always assume God is picking on you.

As often as you can, picture God laughing at you.