Essential Truth: Inviting Christ into My reality (Session 10)
Life in Sin city
Ecclesiastes 1:9
What has been will be again, what has been done will be done again there is nothing new under the sun.
Temptation is always present in so many forms.
God never intended us to reach for things to pollute our minds and turn us away from him.
People frequently submit to temptations of all varieties.
How evil and pain broke into the world… the “fall”
Satan fallen angel from heaven and rebelled against God in heaven.
Clever, crafty, the Devil-disguised as a serpent-brought rebellion to us
Sin was here to stay.
Temptations of all kinds filled world and “good” became broken and distorted.
God didn’t turn His back; He showed us the way and restored our relationship with him.
T-shirt Philosophy
“I know these two things: There is a Good. And you are not Him.”
Common temptation: wanting to be God or at least to share His power.
The way out
Jesus Himself could not avoid facing temptation while on earth.
If Jesus has been through temptations we face and can show us the way out.
With Jesus and the Holy Spirit we can train ourselves to resist rebellion’s pull.
The Fight
Resisting temptations always a struggle-we’re at war unseen forces.
As we fight to stay focused on God, temptations are launched at us.
Ephesians 6:11-12: At some point have to face temptations if you’re ever going to defeat them.
Partners in the battle: Jesus our champion and close friends our support.
AND even though we sometimes manage to avoid it, <1>temptation is always present in so many forms.
Of course God did not design the world to be the way it is.
He never intended for us to reach for things that would pollute our minds and turn us away from him.
HE began by <2>creating the universe and all that is in it and calling it “good.”
The Genesis 3:1-9 tells us the story of how evil and pain broke into history in a tragic episode known as “the hell.” Satan, a fallen angel who rebelled against God in heaven, was quick to tempt mankind to rebel too.
CLEVER and crafty, the <3>Devil (disguised as a serpent) convinced Eve to first doubt God’s words and then His heart and intentions.
She made choice to do what God said not to, Adam passively joined in, and the rest, they say, is history.
Sin was here to stay as part of the human condition. From that moment on, temptations of all kinds filled the world and what started as “good” become broken and distored.
<4>BUT God did not turn His back on Adam and Eve when their poor choices threatened to spoil His beautiful world. Instead, He pursued them-and thousands of generations of their children-with His redeeming love.
Eventually breaking into time Himself, <5>in the person of Jesus God showed us the way and restore our relationship with him.
But the Bible is clear that until Jesus returns to earth a second time, temptation is here to stay.
So we must learn how to confront it, deal with it, and develop patterns in our lives that will help us to avoid, escape it, and overcome it.
On the back of a T-shirt, the truth was captured
“I know these two things: There is God. And you are not Him.”
Human hunger for control and will often do anything to get it.
We want make our own decisions based on our own personal views of life and are many times willing to hurt others in the process.
We want what will satisfy our needs whims, an even our ugliest desires: and this tendency does not go away when we became Christ-followers.
Many students have the mistaken idea that making a decision to trust their lives to jesus will remove all sin and temptation from their lives.
It does not work that way.
The way out
We need to be as honest about the nature of our struggle as humans: Temptation is a constant companion-even in the lives of Christian believers.
In fact, the author of Hebrews gives us our most comforting (and maybe also our most disturbing) teaching on temptation
: Jesus Himself could not avoid facing temptation during His time on the earth.
Of course, He was the only person ever to face temptation and walk away completely free and unscathed.
<6>BUT if Jesus has been through the temptations we face and yet resisted, He can show us the way out of our temptations.
Since the fall, we have been born with the desire to rebel from God and do wrong.
In fact, by our very nature, we are so full of rebellion that we have disconnected ourselves from God.
<7>But through a relationship with Jesus and with the Holy spirit’s help, there are two things we can accomplish:
(1) we can train ourselves to resist rebellion’s pull, and through Jesus’ work of redemption,
(2) we are able to approach god if we accept Jesus’ payment for our failures and rebellion.
The Fight
Understand, however, that obeying god and resisting temptation do not come without a struggle.
<8>The Apostle Paul used battle imaginary to communicate the war that we are at war with unseen forces.
As we fight to stay focused on God, temptations are launched at us like flaming arrows.
And Ephesians 6:11-12 reminds us to
“Put on the full armor of God so that you can stand against the tactics of the devil.
Put on the full armor of God so that you can take your stand against the devils schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against the authorities, against the powers of this dark worlds and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms.
For our battle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against the authorities, against the world powers of this darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavens.”
Our Offensive Weapon
Two interesting truths are found in Paul’s subsequent discussion of the armor of god.
First, there is no mention of armor for our backsides.
Turning and running is very wise when temptations threaten (e.g., Exodus 39:12), but a some point you’re going to have to face your temptations if you are ever going to defeat them.
In the third row a jacinth, an agate and am amethyst.
The second is that we are given only one offensive weapon: the “sword of the Spirit which is god’s word” (Ephesians
Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.
The author of Hebrews tells us how potent the Scriptures are in the hands of God’s people: “Sharper than any two-edged sword, it penetrated even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow” (Hebrews
For the word of God is living and active. Sharper than any double-edged sword, it penetrates even to dividing soul and spirit, joints and marrow: it judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart.
<9>We don’t have to invent ways to resist temptation.
Jesus and the Holy Spirit encourage us, strengthen us, and help us to fight against temptation using the power of god’s word!
Partners in the battle
Of course, without choosing to make Jesus the central partner in the struggles we face, we are helpless in the fight to guard our minds and hearts.
But if we are in Jesus and He is in us (John 15:1-8), then He is always with us, and we can go to Him and share our struggles with Him.
“I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. He cut off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will bear fruitful. You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself: it must remain in the vine. Neither ca you bear fruit unless you remain in me. I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in Him, he will bear much fruit, apart from me you can do nothing. If anyone does not remain me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
<10>He’s our advocate or champion who enables us to confess our issues to God and “approach the throne with confidence,” so that we can find strength in our struggles.
We are also wise to realize that wherever we go, there are others who will help to encourage us in the battle against temptation.
<11>If you are going to be able to stand in the struggle against temptation, you simply cannot do it alone.
YOU need the support of a few very close friends who will bring Jesus’ influence in your life.
With these friends, you can openly confess your struggles, honestly pray for those your friends face, and together you can lovingly hold one another accountable.
