The Temptation Trap
Scripture: James 1:13-15
13 When tempted, no one should say, “God is tempting me.” For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. [1]
James writes these words to differentiate between the testing of God to mature our faith and the temptation that comes from the devil that is designed to bring our ruin.
Alexander MacLaren, in a sermon entitled Faith Tested and Crowned, distinguished between being tempted and being tested or tried. He said that, "the former word conveys the idea of appealing to the worst part of man, with the wish that he may yield and do the wrong. The latter means an appeal to the better part of man, with the desire that he should stand. Temptation says, 'Do this pleasant thing; do not be hindered by the fact that it is wrong.' Trial or proving says, 'Do this right and noble thing; do not be hindered by the fact that it is painful.' The one is a sweet, beguiling melody, breathing soft indulgence and relaxation over the soul; the other is a peeling trumpet-call to high achievements."
Satan tempts us to bring out the worst in us; God tests us to bring out the best in us.
Why Men Are (Justifiably) Proud Of Themselves
1. We know stuff about tanks
2. A 5-day trip requires only one suitcase
3. We can open all our own jars
4. We can go to the bathroom without a support group
5. We don't have to learn to spell a new last name
6. We can leave a motel bed unmade
7. We can kill our own food
8. We get extra credit for the slightest act of thoughtfulness
9. Wedding plans take care of themselves
10. If someone forgets to invite us to something they can still be our friend
11. Underwear is $10 a three-pack
12. If you are 34 and single nobody notices
13. Everything on our faces stays the original color
14. Three pair of shoes are more than enough
15. We don't have to clean the house if the meter reader is coming
16. Car mechanics tell us the truth
17. We can sit quietly and watch a game with a friend for hours without thinking "He must be mad at me."
18. Same work-more pay
19. Gray hair and wrinkles only add character
20. We can drop by and see a friend without having to bring a little gift
21. If another guy shows up at a party in the same outfit you just might become lifelong friends
22. Your pals will never trap you with: "So, notice anything different?"
23. We are not expected to know the names of more than 5 colors
24. We almost never have a "strap problem" in public
25. We are totally unable to see wrinkles in our clothes
26. The same hairstyle lasts for years-maybe decades
27. We don't have to shave below the neck
28. A few belches are expected and tolerated
29. Our belly usually hides our big hips
30. One wallet, one pair of shoes, one color, all seasons
31. We can do our nails with a pocketknife
32. We have freedom of choice concerning growing a mustache
33. Christmas shopping can be accomplished for 25 people on the day before Christmas and in 45 minutes
*Highlighted are omitted
1.The Predictability Factor
Awareness of our weaknesses is crucial to spiritual victory
“. . . . by his own evil desire . . . . “
I don’t know why it is so difficult for us to say, “I’ve got a problem.” (Ill. Car. When I hear a noise in my car I try to ignore it. Turn the radio up. I pray for my car that God would heal it. Then every once in a while I’ll get a mechanic in the car. Now I hate that. They hear things that haven’t broken yet. Please if you ever get in my car and you hear things that mean that I am going to have to spend money – don’t tell me. Let me have a few more miles in blissful ignorance. And then I’ll come home and Elaine will say something. I’ll just assure her that it’s nothing and keep driving.
I have a real appreciation for “Alcoholics Anonymous”. They never seem to lose respect for their deliverance from alcohol. At the appropriate times when a person rises before the group to speak they say, “Hi, my name is Karl and I’m an alcoholic.” No one is semantically offended by that. They share the same history. They recognized that when it came to this particular issue, they had no power in themselves to deliver themselves and they remind themselves every time that they say those words, “I’m an alcoholic.”, that they are one decision and one drink from chaos and ruin. They never become proud of their accomplishments, their dry time. That’s why they can embrace the new recruit with compassion and support because they remember when they were new. And for the new member, there is the comfort and encouragement of knowing that they are being supported by comrades. They are not looked down on for their weakness and fragility because they are surrounded by people who are close enough to touch and know that these folks will forever respect their tendency to be overcome.
12 So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall![2] (1 Corinthians 10)
Where does the work of AA fall short? It falls short in that it does not recognize that we can be transformed into something new, something different when we have a true encounter with the Highest Power.
And where do we fall short?
9 Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders 10 nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God. 11 And that is what some of you were. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God. (1 Corinthians 6) [3]
So what am I saying? Just that each of you have within you a connecting point, a receptor to the voice of the devil as he tempts you in one area or another.
15 Love not the world, neither the things that are in the world. If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him. 16 For all that is in the world, the lust of the flesh, and the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life, is not of the Father, but is of the world. 17 And the world passeth away, and the lust thereof: but he that doeth the will of God abideth for ever. [4]
And what you have been delivered from will always be something that you could return to. James says that we are drawn away by “our own” lust. We respond to the voice of temptation because it touches something weak and vulnerable within us. So what do we do. Peter writes:
8 Be self-controlled and alert. Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion looking for someone to devour. 9 Resist him, standing firm in the faith, because you know that your brothers throughout the world are undergoing the same kind of sufferings.[5] (1 Peter 5)
And yet, according to James this is not sin. If there were nothing in us that could hear the voice of temptation then there would be no possibility that we could sin. It is descriptive of the normal “wrestling” that takes place as we try to stand strong in the Lord. But it is a part of the process.
2.The Proximity Theorem
Our vulnerability to temptation is directly proportional to our distance from God.
It is the “drawing away” that is deadly in my mind. I have watched many people withdraw from the spiritual life over my years as a Christian. It is a gradual process that is hard to object to even. It can look normal and understandable.
Ø I need a break. I have served for so long . . . .
Ø It’s too late for my kids to be out . . . .
Ø I get home too late and I’m too tired to got o prayer meeting . . .
Ø I’m not a reader . . . .
It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer. The truth is that, in order to enjoy the Word, we ought to continue to read it, and the way to obtain a spirit of prayer is to continue praying. The less we read the Word of God, the less we desire to read it, and the less we pray, the less we desire to pray.
n George Muller in A Narrative of Some of the Lord's Dealings with George Muller. Christianity Today, Vol. 32, no. 5.
I believe that we are set up for the temptation that we succumb to and I feel that the strategy that the devil employs is to create distance between ourselves and God or ourselves and the church. Once he has done that then he strikes. How does he create that distance?
Ø Busyness. No wonder we struggle. I feel guilty every time someone sees me as a “busy” person. I don’t know of anyone in this world who is not busy. After a period of time it can be spiritually suffocating to be caught in the rat race of life.
Ø Disconnection from the body.
16 Therefore do not let anyone judge you by what you eat or drink, or with regard to a religious festival, a New Moon celebration or a Sabbath day. 17 These are a shadow of the things that were to come; the reality, however, is found in Christ. 18 Do not let anyone who delights in false humility and the worship of angels disqualify you for the prize. Such a person goes into great detail about what he has seen, and his unspiritual mind puffs him up with idle notions. 19 He has lost connection with the Head, from whom the whole body, supported and held together by its ligaments and sinews, grows as God causes it to grow. [6] (Colossians 2)
Ø Self-sufficiency.
And these things are not sin, merely a part of the process. They just take us closer to the edge.
3.The Probability Issue
When you play with temptation you will ultimately succumb. It’s a “when” not an “if” issue. Sooner or later, in a weakened, distanced state, desire conceives and gives birth to sin. It can be a frighteningly destructive thing for a person. The consequences of our actions here and now can have finality about them that all the sincere repentance in this world cannot erase.
He is gone, but his works survive. His manuscript Temptation is one of the best I've ever read on the subject. Bonhoeffer's vivid description of our tendency to turn off the warnings when sin's allurements wink at us needs to be declared to every generation:
In our members there is a slumbering inclination towards desire which is both sudden and fierce. With irresistible power desire seizes mastery over the flesh. All at once a secret, smoldering fire is kindled. The flesh burns and is in flames. It makes no difference whether it is sexual desire, or ambition, or vanity, or desire for revenge, or love of fame and power, or greed for money, or, finally, that strange desire for the beauty of the world, of nature. Joy in God is... extinguished in us and we seek all our joy in the creature.
At this moment God is quite unreal to us, he loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real; the only reality is the devil. Satan does not here fill us with hatred of God, but with forgetfulness of God. And now his falsehood is added to this proof of strength. The lust thus aroused envelopes the mind and will of man in deepest darkness. The powers of clear discrimination and of decision are taken from us. The questions present themselves: "Is what the flesh desires really sin in this case?" "Is it really not permitted to me, yes -- expected of me, now, here, in my particular situation, to appease desire?" The tempter puts me in a privileged position as he tried to put the hungry Son of God in a privileged position. I boast of my privilege against God.
It is here that everything within me rises up against the Word of God.
Six temptations men face:
* Emotional neglect. Men are most tempted not to give their wives the thing they desire the most: emotional connection and intimacy; the sharing of yourself at the deepest level, and wanting to know the same level in your spouse. God commanded, Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church (Eph. 5:25). The Bible gives no similar instructions to wives because wives are naturally drawn to an intimate love relationship. For men it must be learned.
* Lust. Men become sexually stimulated visually. When a man looks and lusts, that does not mean he no longer loves his wife. He is engaged in temptation - physical and spiritual. We live in a sexually over-stimulated culture in which many men are drained of the spiritual energy needed to expose temptation and the moral energy to resist it. The best way to resist sexual temptation is to flee from it.
* False gods. You can have only one god. Most men try to worship an idol and God. That, too, is impossible. Idolatry is the error of giving worship or homage to any power or object other than God. It's either going to be Jesus Christ or something else. And whatever the something else is, it will never satisfy (e.g. accomplishments, money, pleasure, possessions, power, prestige, or position).
* Money and debt. Men find money intoxicating. Jesus named money as his chief competitor: No one can serve two masters....You cannot serve both God and money (Matt. 6:24). Not only is man tempted to earn more money, but also to borrow more money than he can afford to repay. The temptation is not to love God or money. The temptation is to love them both. To live debt-free within your means, with Jesus as the god of your life, is the goal.
* Whining. The Bible tells of people who grumbled about the sufficiency of God's care. When men see others advancing more rapidly, frequently resentments, jealousies, envy, and bitterness build up. Slights, perceived and real, grind on his ego. The way to overcome the temptation to complain is to accept your lot in life and get on with a positive outlook. Paul said, I have learned to be content whatever the circumstances (Phil 4:11).
* Pride. Stubborn pride often keeps a man from humbling himself and admitting he's wrong. Temptation to pride comes in many disguises. The most common form is for a man to look down with disdain on others. It is a sin of comparison in which a man compares his [perceived] strength with another's weaknesses. Equally insidious is the temptation for a man to look up in disgust to others who have it better or have accomplished more. Pride can even cause some men to feel they are above talking about "touchy feelings," and so emotionally neglect their wives.
Patrick Morley is a business leader, speaker, and then best-selling author of seven books, including The Man in the Mirror, Walking with Christ in the Details of Life, The Rest of Your Life, Devotions for Couples, and The Seven Seasons of a Man's Life. He lives with his family in Orlando, Fla.
Taken from What Husbands Wish Their Wives Knew About Men by Patrick M. Morley.
Sooner or later you will encounter the temptation that you cannot resist.
So what’s the point of all this? You can’t change your humanity. There is a part of us in this world that will fight against the development of the spirit. The lust of the eyes or the flesh or the pride of life.
But we can prevent ourselves from being distanced from God. You and no one else will determine how close you live to God. Only you can determine how tolerant you will be for the things that are detrimental to your spiritual health.
YOU PUT THE DEVIL OUT BUT YOU LET HIM LEAVE HIS BAGS!!!
You got out of a bad relationship because it was bad, but you are still resentful, and angry. (You let the devil leave his bags)
You got out of financial debt, but you still can't control the desire to spend on frivolous things. (You let the devil leave his bags)
You got out of a bad habit or addiction, but you still long to try it just one more time. (You let the devil leave his bags)
You said, I forgive you, but you can't seem to forget and have peace with that person. (You let the devil leave his bags)
You told your mate that it was over, but you still continue to call.
(You let the devil leave his bags)
You got out of that horribly oppressive job, but you're still trying to sabotage the company after you've left. (You let the devil leave his bags)
You cut off the affair with that married man/woman, but you still lust after him/her.
(you let the devil leave his bags)
You broke off your relationship with that hurtful, abusive person, but you are suspicious and distrusting of every new person you meet.
(you let the devil leave his bags)
You decided to let go of the past hurts from growing up in an unstable family environment, yet you believe you are unworthy of love from others and you refuse to get attached to anyone.
(you let the devil leave his bags)
WHEN YOU PUT THE DEVIL OUT; MAKE SURE HE TAKES HIS BAGS, TOO!
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[1]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[2]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[3]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[4]The Holy Bible : King James Version. 1995 (1 Jn 2:15-17). Oak Harbor, WA: Logos Research Systems, Inc.
[5]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
[6]The Holy Bible : New International Version. 1996, c1984 (electronic ed.) . Zondervan: Grand Rapids
