TheWay2OVercomeSrmn
6-7/8-08
The Way To Overcome
[Video: Temple of Doom, PlaneCrash Scene]
There are mountains of temptations we face in life and we must overcome these or else like that unmanned airplane, we’re going to crash. As long as you live you’re going to encounter temptation. There’s no bailing out for us. There’s no parachute for us, because the plane is our life. If there’s a pilot, it would be our brain. What do we need to get the necessary altitude to get above and beyond temptation?
A plane flies because it gets lift and thrust which offsets weight and drag. A plane needs thrust to overcome drag and lift to overcome weight. When we are tempted, there are a number of factors involved that we have to deal with. There are several factors that contribute to the spiritual weight and drag that we have to overcome.
One is the Spiritual Factor: There is a tremendous weight in each of our lives pulling us down. And this weight is the experience, habit, and guilt of sin. We have all been created in the image of God to be like Him in our life and character, and we have all failed to live up to even our own hopes, dreams and expectations for our lives let alone those of our Creator who is perfect. Since our very first ancestors, Adam and Eve, invited our spiritual enemy into this world by listening to the devil’s suggestions, this planet has been contaminated with sin. Each of us has been born into a world of sin by parents who are sinners. We have been introduced to sin, and personally acquainted with sin by our own involvement ever since we drew our first breath. We all know what this has been like in our own lives and no one has ever had to take a course on sinning or hire a coach or take personal sinning lessons. We’re all experts in sinning and it weighs us down.
And there’s also a spiritual adversary out to take advantage of our susceptibility to sin. His goal is to destroy you, your future, your family and your faith in God. This is the reason Jesus came. He came to bring us freedom from the consequences of our sin by taking our penalty on Himself in our place. And, He came to give us the power to escape the clutches of sin by overcoming the habit of sin in our life and living His righteous kind of life instead.
Sin in our life is the weight that has to be dealt with in order to get the lift we need to overcome temptation and there are a couple of components that contribute to the drag we have to overcome. One component of drag is The Temperamental Factor. There are some of us who by our temperament love to play it close to temptation. Some people just like to see how close they can get to the mountain before they veer upward. These people are risk-takers by nature. They like to push the rules and are thrill seekers by nature. These people like to push to the limit in everything they do. They are play-it-close-to-the-mountain people. There’s a story about an old pilot who was going for his first eye exam in 15 years. The Dr. said, “I can’t pass you. You can barely read the big ‘E’ on the eye chart.” The pilot said, “Doc, you’ve got to pass me. Flying is my life. I’ve always flown safely. I’ve never had an accident.” The Dr said, “that’s what surprises me, because I don’t see how you can land safely when you can’t even see the runway.” The pilot said, “Oh, that’s easy, doc. It just takes teamwork.” The Dr said, “What do you mean teamwork?” “It’s easy. When it’s time to land the plane, I just push up on the throttle and I look over at my co-pilot and we keep going down and down; and I keep pushing up on the throttle and we keep going down and down. And finally, when the co-pilot goes, ‘Uuuuuh!’ I pull up on the throttle and we land safely every time.” Some people are prone to being blind to temptation because they have a temperament that leans in to breaking the rules and risk-taking. Earlier this year Elliot Spitzer had to resign as governor of NY State because of giving in to temptation, and all accounts of people who knew him described him as a person who liked to live on the edge.
Other people are a lot different than that. They like to keep the rules, and when you see temptation coming up 5 miles away, you’re veering up then. God bless your soul, if your temperament is that way. Just as some people are born with blonde hair or green eyes, and just as some people are born to be short of stature or thick-boned or left-handed, some people are born with temperaments that lean toward a certain kinds of sin. Temperament has a lot to do with explaining why some people are more blind to self-destructive temptations than others. This is why the Bible says flee from certain sins.
"Pay close attention to yourself..." [1 Timothy 4:16, New American Standard Bible]
Know who you are by temperament. If you’re aware of how you’re wired and know that you’re a sucker for risk, then you know to look out for Temptation Mountain. Now, if by temperament you’re not a risk-taking-fly-it-close-to-the-mountain person, but you are very interested in people, so your temptation is more likely to be gossip. You can get into it so quickly before you even are aware of it. The Bible’s operative term, when it comes to temptation, is flee. In other words, get the altitude you need as early as you can to get over temptation mountain and get out of there.
A reporter asked an African safari guide, “Is it true that ferocious animals won’t harm you if you carry a torch?” And the experienced guide said, “That depends upon how fast you carry the torch.” You’d better know the sins from which you need to run, Forrest, run. Carry the torch as fast as you can away from that. It could be anger, pride, lust, greed, laziness, selfishness, materialism, insecurity. Remember, if you have a problem with donuts, don’t go to the bakery and sniff! Know what will magnify your weaknesses and draw you toward temptation.
Another component of drag that we have to overcome in order to get over temptation is The Emotional Factor: We don’t have the power to get the altitude I need to fly over and past temptation.
Think of the last time that the pace of your life got out of control. When was the last time, for whatever reason, you allowed yourself to go way past your physical and emotional limits? When was the last time you found yourself staggering toward the couch just wanting to get horizontal, and thought I don’t want to solve one more problem, fix one more person, come up with one more creative solution, teach one more class, change one more diaper or read one more report? You weren’t joking. You were exhausted physically and emotionally. If you’ve been there, you need to know there is an emotional factor to temptation. When we’re tired, we’re easily tempted and when we’re tired and tempted, we don’t have the power to fly above it and past it. Vince Lombardi once said, “Fatigue makes cowards of us all.” These are factors that we all need to be aware of when it comes to temptation. So, what can we do? How do we overcome these things?
In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul points out some of the moments in Israel’s history where they crashed into Temptation Mountain while they were on the way to the Promised Land. They had fallen for idolatry, sexual immorality, grumbling. God actually caused the ground to open up and swallow people, because He got so sick of them complaining. They had tested God’s patience.
"These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us, on whom the culmination of the ages has come. So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall! No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to us all. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it." [1 Corinthians 10:11-13, Today’s NIV]
When temptation comes, you need the power and the lift to get you over and past Temptation Mountain. God has provided a way above and beyond temptation. When faced with temptation, say this: Temptation, you will not drag me down because I have too much learning and too much love.
Let’s look at that more closely. I have too much learning. In other words, God has given us lessons for lifting us above temptation. We have experiences that teach us to steer clear of temptation. 1 Corinthians 10:11 says, “These things happened to them as examples and were written down as warnings for us.”
The things written in the Bible are lessons from which we can learn, “I’m not getting clsoe to my temptation. I’m not messing with it.” By looking at what has happened to others and what has happened to ourselves in the past, we learn some things. Last week we learned there is always more at stake than what you think in the moment of temptation. That is a critical lesson. If you will trust and believe that, it will really adjust your response to temptation. In 1 Corinthians 10:12 Paul says no one is exempt. “So, if you think you are standing firm, be careful that you don’t fall!” Paul is saying that if you like seeing how close you can fly to Temptation Mountain, and you think it’s going to be different for you--watch out! We are easily deceived into thinking we can handle it. Don’t be naïve. Realize self-confidence is a delusion. Don’t be deceived. Think about all that you’ve learned. And don’t mess with temptation. Flee!
Paul Harvey once told of an airline attendant who was harassed by a flirt on the front of the plane the entire flight. And there was also another guy in the back of the plane who was hitting on her. And toward the end of the flight the goon in the front gave her the key to his apartment and address and said, “See you tonight!” She grabbed it, took it to the guy in the back, gave it to him and said, “Don’t be late!” Get away from the temptation quickly. Realize that no one is exempt. We’re all susceptible to the same things that get some people put on the news. Learn from the experiences others. Stay away from the temptation. Take the wisdom of God.
"Wise people see danger and go to a safe place. But childish people keep on going and suffer for it." [Proverbs 27:12, New International Readers’ Version]
When you live life in partnership with God, His Holy Spirit in you teaches you a sensitivity to your situation and your circumstances so that you know when it’s time to take action and change your course to get above and beyond temptation. Sin destroys your life ugly, and God’s heart breaks when he sees temptation threatening your life. He knows the consequences of temptation and he’s trying to help you overcome. God doesn’t stand idly by and watch this whole plane crash happen. God is yearning, rooting for you, teaching you, wanting to help you overcome temptation. God gives his followers “deception detectors” so they can see temptation on the horizon and say, “I see it coming. I’m not going to just crash into it like I used to. I’m not going to say it’s all hazy and I don’t understand it. I’m going to see it for what it is while it’s a long way away, and I’m going to fly above it before it gets close and I get confused by it and crash into it. I’ve learned this.”
“Temptation, you will not drag me down because I have too much learning and too much love.” Every temptation you ever face can be overcome with the love of God fueling your soul. Learning gives us lift above temptation, but love is our power over temptation. Love is the single most powerful entity in the universe. Love is the power to raise altitude and not crash. There are some things we will not fall for simply because we have been loved too much and we have too much love in our hearts to ever allow that to happen.
"If anyone obeys his word, God’s love is truly made complete in him. This is how we know we are in him:" [1 John 2:5, NIV]
When it comes to being obedient to God and living lives that don’t fall into the pull of temptation, the issue is all about trusting that God is good enough and being filled up with His love for me and loving Him too much to fall for this. Love alone is powerful enough to keep you from falling into temptation.
This was exactly the case for Jacob’s son, Joseph. In Genesis 39 Joseph served in the administration of Potiphar, a high ranking official of Pharoah. Joseph found favor with Potiphar and it says he prospered. But one day, Potiphar’s wife tried to seduce Joseph, asking him to sleep with her.
"But he refused. ‘With me in charge,’ he told her, ‘my master does not concern himself with anything in the house; everything he owns he has entrusted to my care. No one is greater in this house than I am. My master has withheld nothing from me except you, because you are his wife. How then could I do such a wicked thing and sin against God?’ And though she spoke to Joseph day after day, he refused to go to bed with her or even be with her." [Genesis 39:8-10, NIV]
What gave Joseph power over temptation? He saw that all the good things he experienced in his life were from the hand of God. “God has been so good to me. How could I do this?” His love for God was greater than the power of this temptation. You will never face a temptation that cannot be overcome with the love of God fueling your soul. Because when you have that, you have the most powerful force in the universe. With this love you readily say, “How could I? How could I do this to my wife? My husband? My kids? But ultimately, how could I do this to God?”
The opposite is also true. When we’re not complete in love, look out. We’re capable of about anything. This is why when we’re angry with God and bitter toward God and are carrying resentments, we’re most susceptible to temptation because we’ve lost the most powerful force over temptation: love.
Where do we get that love? We get that love through the cross of Jesus Christ. That’s where God’s love has been expressed the greatest. When Jesus died on the cross, the Bible says God took all of our sins and laid them on Him. The Bible says, “He who knew no sin became sin for us.” Jesus was God in the flesh. When He died, He was not limited by time and space. He died not only for the sins of the past but also for all the sins of all time. He could look down to 2008 and say, “David McClary, I see every sin you committed since you were born. I see the life that you live and the sins you’ll commit in the future, and I see the day you die. I’m going to die here, taking the burden and penalty of your sins on myself.”
There’s an old song, “Was it for crimes that I have done, He groaned upon the tree? Amazing pity, grace unknown and love beyond degree.” When you open your soul to the love of God, you’re opening your soul to the most powerful force in the universe, a force strong enough to thrust you above the temptations that would bring you down and ruin your life.
Temptation, you will not drag me down because I have too much learning and too much love. Think about your most recurring temptation: person, habit, a thing. With that, memorize this statement and make this statement: Temptation, you will not drag me down because I have too much learning and too much love.
God says you have everything that you need to escape the power of temptation in your life.