Bona Fide- A Study Of James- Part 4- "The Temptation Within" Series

Bona Fide

A study of James

Genuine Christian living

Part 4

“The Temptation within”

Today as we continue our study of James

We will continue to connect the dots

That James lays out

For Bona Fide

Christian living

We began this series with the pressure test

If you will remember we looked at trials and troubles as pressure in our lives

And we saw how God uses the pressure to bend us

Not break us

He does this

In order to give us the tools for true spiritual growth and the ability to overcome anything that Satan or the world throw at us

Last week we took a quick look at wisdom

And discussed the difference between the worlds wisdom and God’s wisdom

And we saw how surrendering to the worlds wisdom and not accepting and following the wisdom of God in our lives

Often causes us to waver

To be blown by the winds of this world

And we end up like Jake spoon

Sitting on a horse with a rope around our necks

Today I am going to skip ahead just a little to verses 12-15 of James

The verses I am passing by are very important

But

Like wisdom

I plan to cover the topic in those more in depth later in this series

But for today

I want to look at the cause of pressure

The cause of those winds in our lives

The root cause of sin

And I want to discuss some misconceptions about temptation

And then “get real”

Get Bona Fide

On this subject

Please open up your bibles to

James Chapter 1

Let me start out with verse 12

12 God blesses those who patiently endure testing and temptation. Afterward they will receive the crown of life that God has promised to those who love him. “

This is a recap from week one

We saw how when we overcome the pressure

When we pass the test

We receive the blessing that God has for us

He uses

Listen

Uses

Key on the word uses here

Trials

Troubles and pressure in our lives to produce endurance

Perseverance

In order to strengthen us

Grow us

Give us the tools to get it done

But

But

Remember I told you just a moment ago to key on the word uses

God uses trials to grow us

But he does not send the temptations that cause the trials

He tests us

But he does not tempt us

Let’s read verse 13

13 And remember, when you are being tempted, do not say, “God is tempting me.” God is never tempted to do wrong,[a] and he never tempts anyone else.

Many people want to blame God for tempting them when the wheels fall off of their lives

But James

Jesus’ brother James

Shows us in scripture that this just ain’t true

He says

That God never tempts anyone to do evil

There is no evil in God

None

And he will not and cannot use evil to tempt anyone

So that excuse won’t hold water

So we tend to move on to other excuses for our temptations and our surrender to them

“It’s not my fault”

“I couldn’t help it”

“It was just a mistake”

“Everyone else is doing it”

“Nobody’s perfect”

“I didn’t know it was wrong”

“I was pressured into it”

Or one of the most common excuse

“The Devil made me do it”

But in order to get Bona Fide

In order to deal with temptation

In order to overcome temptation

We must first admit where it comes from

It does not come from God

He will use the trouble in our lives to grow us

But

He never tempts us to do evil

The devil made me do it many claim

Yes

I agree

The devil uses many tricks to lure us into sin

But once again

Notice I said uses

Why would I say uses?

Because

James says our temptation come from inside of us

Verses 14-15

14 Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away. 15 These desires give birth to sinful actions. And when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

Temptation comes from inside of us

God uses the trials that surrendering to temptation bring

And Satan uses our own temptations as lures to pull us away

But

At the end of the day

He can only use what we already struggle with

In the women’s round pen a couple of weeks back

Patti used the example of a can of snuff and a piece of cake

Few if any of the women would be tempted by the tobacco

But

The cake was another thing altogether

In our men’s study we discussed fishing lures and how in order to catch a specific species of fish or even a specific fish