It's Tempting
I INTRODUCTION
A. Reality TV
1. In the year 2000, the reality T.V. boom began, and it continues to this day.
(1) Reality TV is an unscripted series that takes average people and puts them in to unusual situations and then films what happens.
2. The grandaddy of reality shows is Survivor.
B. Survivor
1. In this show, participants are taken to a deserted place (usually an island somewhere on the planet) and challenged with a series of physical contests over 39 days. Each week, one person is voted by the rest to leave the show. The last person standing wins one million dollars.
2. This show is intriguing and at the time was credited with injecting new life into the network prime time line up.
C. Since then, we have seed a never ending parade of reality programming from all of the major networks and many of the smaller networks.
1. The bachelor, Big Brother, the amazing race, the biggest loser,
2. Some have been better than others; Some have been downright aweful.
D. But I must say the one show that took this genre to the lowest low was the Fox reality show that aired in 2001 and 2002 called Temptation Island.
1. In this show unmarried dating couples traveled to an exotic locale to test and explore the strength of their relationship.
2. Once on location, the couples were introduced to eligible singles and then separated from their partners until the final day of the stay.
3. The tag line for the series was: Will they stay or will they stray? Such is the drivel on TV.
4. This show was a caricature of the real human experience of temptation.
E. Real temptation comes to us when we find our selves in situations where we are tempted to take the short cut instead of the long way around.
1. When I was a middle-shooler, I had a friend that lived a couple of miles away form my house. It really wasn’t that far as the crow flies, but to get to his house by streets, I had to go out of the way. Up one street, over another, and back down a third street. Now part of the reason I had to go out of my way to get to his house was that there was a big pond between us.
2. Now, my family always had a rule that you were home on time for dinner. One day, after a fund day of playing together, I noticed that I had let time slip by and I was going to be late if I went home the normal way. It was in the middle of winter, and the pond was frozen. It seemed to me that I could save a bunch of time if I took a short cut across the pond, rather than going home by the road.
3. A voice told me, “No Lee, Don’t even think about it. Just be late and take the consequences.” But I didn’t want to face the consequences and the temptation was too much. I went across the frozen pond.
4. That’s right. You guessed it. I was about half way across, when the ice gave way and I went up to my shoulders in ice cold water. I got home later than I would by the road. And I was cold and wet.
F. The short cut across the pond had promised me “on-time arrival,” but what it delivered was a cold, wet, late arrival. Short cuts will do that.
1. Short cuts, Temptation. They promise gold but deliver dross.
G. This morning I want to look at two reality shows that were produced by God almighty and they are stories of temptation. One happens in a beautiful garden; the other happens in a desolate desert. Our first show is Temptation Garden: Forbidden Fruit.
II TEMPTATION GARDEN
A. The setting of this show is in the idyllic Garden of Eden.
1. God had created the whole world including two human beings.
(1) He placed these two, Adam and Even, into the midst of this garden for the purpose of tending it.
(2) They had free reign of the place, and they could eat of the fruit of every tree except one.
2. They were not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of Good and Evil, for if they would, they would die.
3. Both the man and the woman were naked, and they were not ashamed.
B. Enter in the serpent.
1. Now some believe that the serpent was the Devil, and it may have been. But the text of the story does not say that. It only says that the serpent was more crafty than other wild animals. He was the trouble maker.
C. One day, the woman was minding her own business when the serpent slithers up to her.
1. “Did God really say that you must not eat any of the fruit in the garden.”
(1) This crafty question cannot be answered by a yes or a no.
2. “Of course we may eat of the fruit. We just cannot eat the fruit from the tree in the center of the garden. God says we must not eat it or even touch it or we will die.”
(1) Notice that the woman added to what God had prohibited.
D. “You won’t die” hissed the serpant. “God knows that your eyes will be opened when you eat it. And you will become just like God, knowing everything, both good and evil.”
E. This was too much for the woman, too tempting.
1. The fruit looked delicious and she wanted to be wise, so she ate some of it.
2. Her husband was with her and so she gave some to him too.
3. Once they ate they realized they were naked and they were ashamed.
F. What can we learn from our show: Temptation Garden?
1. Well God gives freedom and limits, and then leaves a choice to make.
(1) Will we obey or disobey.
(2) It is clear that both the woman an the man chose to disobey.
(3) Their disobedience was bad enough, but it was their reason for disobeying that it was worse.
(4) They tried to be as God: knowing good and evil; wise like God.
G. Their act of disobedience had consequences
1. They learned that they were naked and they were ashamed.
2. They became fearful, hiding from the very one who created them.
3. They became estranged from one another and the world that God created.
4. The serpent had promised knowledge and life but what they got was fear and death.
5. Such are the results of disobedience or trying to take the short cut
III TEMPTATION DESERT
A. Let us now move to our second show Temptation Dessert: Hungry for bread.
B. The setting is a desert where Jesus was led by the Spirit following his baptism.
1. It was in his baptism that God said, “this is my son with whom I am well pleased.”
2. Jesus had his youthful suspicions confirmed: He was the son of God.
C. He had been out in the desert for 40 days (this of course reminds us of the forty years that Israel was out in the desert.) During this time he had not eaten. He was hungry. At this point the Devil comes to him to tempt him to take some short cuts.
D. He begins by questioning what Jesus just learned.
1. “Ok, so you think you are the son of God, why don’t you prove it by turning these stones into bread. You are hungry aren’t you?”
(1) This temptation addresses Jesus personally and challenges him to prove his sonship - to use his special gifts to obtain a benefit only for himself.
(2) Whatever doubts he may have had about himself (due to his humanity) could have been dispelled in an instant.
2. Jesus resists and supports himself against the temptation by relying on scripture.
(1) “The evidence that I am the son of God is not in the demonstration of power, but in the trust I have in my Father’s will.”
(2) Jesus did not want to be disobedient to his Father.
E. For the second temptation, the Devil takes Jesus to the pinnacle of the temple and basically says, “Ok. If you trust God so much, why don’t you demonstrate that trust by throwing yourself off the temple. God will protect you.”
1. In one spectacular moment, Jesus could prove to all Jerusalem that he was indeed the Son of God. Such a miracle would certainly win all who saw it to faith.
2. Jesus resists again and supports his decision with scripture.
(1) Jesus will not use the power given him for personal success.
(2) He will wait upon God; he will not force God’s hand.
(3) He will not seek to prove his faith by testing God.
F. For the third temptation, the Devil shows Jesus all the kingdoms of the world and says, “You can be the ruler of all of these kingdoms. All you must do is worship me. I will make you the Lord of all of the kingdoms of the world.”
1. Indeed, isn’t this the goal of Jesus’ life? To be king of kings, and lord of lords?
2. Think of the good Jesus could do if he was the king.
3. For one small price he could achieve so much good for the world.
4. Jesus resists again and supports himself through scripture.
(1) “We are to worship and serve only God.”
G. These three temptations asked Jesus
1. to abuse his position as the Son of God;
2. to use God rather than to be used by God;
3. to refuse God in order to have the world for himself.
4. These temptations offered Jesus the short cut, the seemingly easier way.
(1) He could reach the end of his ministry through easy means.
(2) He could avoid suffering and the cross and still bring people to faith.
5. The Devil was saying, don’t take the long hard road home, just scoot across the frozen pond. It will hold you.
6. But Jesus did not choose the shortcut, instead he chose the long, hard way of obedience and the cross.
IV CONTRAST
A. There is a similarity in these two stories: each of the participants are faced with a choice.
B. There is also a difference: and that is the kind of choice each made.
C. Jesus
1. Jesus was tempted to use his power given by God;
2. But chose not to disobey God or use God to claim something for himself.
D. Adam and Eve on the other hand were tempted to become like God to know as God knows
1. And they chose to follow the temptation and disobey God.
E. There can be no starker contrast.
1. They tried to be equal to God
2. But Jesus did not count equality with God as something to be exploited. Instead he emptied himself and became obedient to death, even death on a cross. Jesus proved to be loyal and obedient.
V TEMPTATION WORLD
A. There is a new reality show being filmed right now and you are one of the contestants.
1. The show is called: Temptation World: In the thick of it!
B. We are like Adam and Eve (and Jesus) in the thick of it. In the thick of life.
C. And in this world temptation is real for us.
1. To fudge the numbers, to conceal the truth, to live a lie. (PAUSE)
D. But the temptations we face are not just succumb to some sin.
E. Very often we are faced with the choice to do something that will lead to something good.
1. How many of us has said, “I wish I had all the power in the world to do away with hunger.”
2. The Temptation Jesus faced was to bring all the world to faith - this is what he wanted.
(1) but it was the path to achieving the good that was the problem.
(2) Temptation is deceptively attractive; because it promises such good things.
(3) The hardest temptations are offers to rise, not to fall
(a) the fall comes after the failed promise.
3. Temptation asks us to cut corners, to take the easy way, with the promise that the ends do justify the means.
4. But what we find is that while temptation promises much, it delivers little.
(1) In trying to reach a laudible goal, we are tempted to avoid the long way around the lake
(2) But what happens is that we end up neck deep in cold water.
F. Yes Ultimately, temptation is about choices.
G. And it is in the choices we are faced with that temptation becomes powerful.
1. Adam and Eve chose to try to be like God.
2. Jesus chose to give up his claim to God.
3. Will we trust God and follow God’s ways which are often unclear and difficult or will we try to take a short cut that we have made? (PAUSE)
4. This is the essence of temptation.
VI WHO ARE THE SERPANTS:
A. Let me ask a personal question:
1. Who are the serpents in your lives that whisper in your ears.
2. What are these serpents asking you to do. What choices are they placing before you?
3. What tempts you to go across the frozen pond instead of around it?
B. How will your appearance on Temptation World End?
VII RESPONSES
A. We can learn much from these passages on how to support ourselves when the serpents start whispering.
1. First off we can follow in the footsteps of Jesus by grounding ourselves in scripture.
(1) The more we read, the more we memorize, the more tools we will have to refute temptation with the word and will of God.
2. Secondly, We can surround ourselves with other Christians who will help support us and give a counter voice to that of the serpent. They can encourage us and hold us accountable.
(1) What would have happened if instead of going along passively with Eve, Adam had stood firm and spoke words of encouragement for her to stand firm. The story would have ended up differently.
3. Thirdly, we must put ourselves in the hands of the one who understands our plight.
(1) Hebrews says, “we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but we have one who in every respect has been tested as we are, yet without sin.”
(2) Jesus understands. So let us go to him with our temptations.
4. Finally we must trust that God will grant us strength.
(1) In 1 Corinthians 10:13, Paul writes, “no temptation has seized you, that isn’t common to all humans. God is faithful, he will not allow you to be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.”
(2) We are not alone in our temptations; others have had the same ones.
(3) God does not allow us to be tempted beyond what we can bear; we are able to resist if we choose to.
5. God will give us the strength.
B. Now what happens if we do succumb to temptation?
1. Well, being imperfect people, we know it will happen.
2. But when it does happen, instead of beating ourselves up we need to come to the throne of grace, and ask God’s forgiveness through Christ, and pray that next time we will resist through the power of the Holy Spirit.
VIII FINAL COMMENTS
A. I learned that winter day, that no matter how tempting the short cut is, in the long run it is not worth it.
B. As we all live out the continuing reality show, Tempation World, it is my prayer that we prepare ourselves to face whatever comes our way.
C. Thanks be to God for our savior Jesus, who resisted the devil and took the pather of suffering and crucifixion, so that we might be saved. Amen.