Sermon Tone Analysis

fIntroduction

https://www.npr.org/2019/03/08/701508051/good-samaritan-returns-lost-lottery-ticket-the-man-who-bought-it-wins-jackpot

What would you have done?

Kept the ticket and claimed the prize or turned it in?

Test/temptation - Life is full of tests, struggles, and difficulties, and life is also full of temptations.

Everyday temptation is before you.

Will you honor God or will you not?

Everyday temptation is before you.

Will you honor God or will you not?

Why are we tempted?

Because of the cross: 1.

The punishment for your sin was taken care of.

Jesus died in your place so that you would not be punished.

2. The power of sin over you was eliminated.

It doesn’t have to control you any longer.

What you struggle with today, you don’t have to struggle with five weeks from now. 3. BUT, the presence of sin remains.

Because the presence of sin remains - we’re daily tempted to give in to sin.

Temptation is an everyday occurence, and temptation to sin seems to be strongest when life is hard.

James - writing to believers who were going through difficulties and they’re going to face temptations!

There will be temptations for you.

What you need to know about temptation and how you battle it.

Three truths that will help us in our battle against temptation:

All trials bring temptations.

Chap. 1 is all about trials.

vs. 3-4 - Trials are an opportunity for God to mature you in your faith.

You’ve seen it!

vs. 12-13 - Trials and temptation closely connected.

Greek word for tempted in is the same word used for trials.

In every trial there is temptation.

Every trial brings opportunity, every trial also brings opposition.

On one hand, God wants to grow you.

On other hand, there’s an enemy who wants to stop you from experiencing the work of God in your life.

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Your trials are either going to bring tremendous growth if you keep your eyes on Jesus and walk by faith OR your trials are going to bring terrible danger if you choose to take your eyes off of Jesus and give in to temptation.

For example:

Wealth is a test of your faith.

Will you let it humble you?

See it as a gift from God to use for His Kingdom?

Or, will you let it ruin you?

Will you use wealth to go after material gain?

Will you waste it on you?

Poverty is a test of your faith.

Will you trust God to provide, or will you be tempted to say, “God is not faithful to me?

He does not care about me.”

Disease is a trial.

Will you say, “God is faithful and good even in my sickness.”

Or, “God is not good to make me go through this.”

Parenting (on Mother’s Day) - a constant test!

Will I give in to my anger and lash out at my kids?

Or, will I be patient and filled with grace?

Luke and Football - Mom protecting from danger - Don’t want to get in a wreck - stay out of the car - BUT, you can’t avoid all difficulties.

You will have trouble, and you will be tempted in the troubles.

All temptation comes from within.

All trials bring temptation, but make sure you know exactly where temptation comes from.

In trials, temptation is to blame God:

“My life would be better if God wouldn’t have put me in this mess.”

“I can’t help the things I do.

God made me this way.

(Even if my choices are inconsistent with God’s Word.)

- God is NOT the source of your temptation.

He may bring testing in your life, but He cannot entice you to evil because there is no evil in Him!

God is pure and perfect.

He hates evil.

He is at work to completely deliver us from evil.

He cannot even be tempted with evil.

It’s not even a possibility.

If God is completely free from evil, how could He entice someone to do evil?

It is impossible for God to lure you into evil.

God does not put you through trials to encourage sin.

Instead, God puts you in trials to produce faithfulness.

In the same way, you put your children in challenging situations not to produce evil but to build them up.

- Your temptation does not come from external sources.

You can’t blame God.

You can’t blame other people.

You can’t blame your circumstances.

Temptation comes from within.

- “The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately sick; who can understand it?”

9  The heart is deceitful above all things,

You know this from experience: selfish, prone to anger, prone to think things that are absolutely vile, etc.

and desperately sick;

The desire to reject God’s way is in you - those desires SCREAM lies to us and like an attractive lure, our desires.

(Buy It Now button at Amazon - headphones - 1 click.)

In trials - God’s saying, “Trust me.”

But our hearts, if not brought under control of Spirit, are saying:

who can understand it?

God’s Way is restrictive.

There’s too many rules to keep.

God’s way is just do’s and don’ts.

There’s no freedom in doing life God’s way.

The Holy Bible: English Standard Version (Wheaton, IL: Crossway Bibles, 2016), .

God’s way is not relevant.

What God says just doesn’t work in today’s complicated world.

Bible written thousands of years ago.

How is it relative in a modern, technologically driven society?

Heart says: My way is freeing.

My way is right.

I determine my own destiny.

If you give in to the lies of your heart, you give birth to sin, and if you continue to surrender to sin instead of God, sin will grow and overtake your life and lead to death; not life.

(vs.

14-15)

Bottom line: You sin because you want to.

Three challenges: