RECOGNIZING THE TEMPTATION TRAP
Isa. 54:17
INTRODUCTION
A. HUMOR: NAMES MIX-UP
1. An evangelist, James Rowles, was invited to preach at a small rural church. However, the man who was to introduce him to the congregation had trouble pronouncing his name. So James offered this verbal clue: “Remember rolls, like hot buttered rolls.”
2. It worked. When it came time for the introduction, the man announced, “Our special guest today is Reverend James Biscuits.” [Ruth Rowles, Halifax, Virginia]
B. THE OFFER STARTED SOUNDING GOOD
1. There was a U.S. ship captain who had a regular route from California to Columbia. He had delivered his shipment to Columbia and was about to embark for the U.S. when he was approached by the drug cartel. They wanted him to carry a small shipment of drugs to the U.S., where their people would clandestinely unload them.
2. They offered him $500,000 to do it. He said, “No.” On his next three trips to Columbia the cartel again approached him, offering him more & more money -- $1 million, $1.5 million, and then $2 million. At being offered $2 million, he told them “Maybe.”
3. He called the DEA in the U.S. and a sting operation was set up. The drug dealers were arrested. One of the DEA agents asked the captain, “Why did you wait until the offers got to $2 million before you called us? The captain replied, “Because they were getting close to my price!”
C. TOPIC & TITLE
1. Today we’re looking at how temptation works and how to escape it.
2. The title is, “Recognizing the Temptation Trap.”
I. THE METHOD OF TEMPTATION
A. TEMPTATION KNOWS YOUR PRICE
1. Like the Drug Cartel, Temptation knows when you’re susceptible and will relentlessly keep making offers to your soul, upping the ante, until it persuades you to give in. It would be hopeless if it weren’t for the promise from God of victory, “No weapon formed against you shall prosper” Isa. 54:17.
2. The word “formed” in that verse means “tailor-made;” it’s a personal word. So the weapons the enemy uses against us aren’t made on an assembly line in Hell, but they’re “custom-built” specifically for you and me. This is a warning. The enemy studies us, he knows our weaknesses, our hearts and our souls, and he engineers weapons made specifically to break down our defenses and overwhelm us.
3. For some it's fear, for others it’s loneliness, or greed, or desire to be rich, or it's lust for pornography. And here’s the bad news: Satan goes after your most vulnerable spots. Good news? “No weapon used against you shall prosper!” The Bible tells us how to win in spiritual warfare.
B. WHAT IS IT THE DEVIL KNOWS I WANT? KEY IDEA: in order for temptation to be a temptation, it has to attract me; it has to have something I want. EXPERTS IN STUDYING THE NATURE OF VICTIMS:
1. The Maori people of New Zealand were specialists in catching prey. They would study the habits of their prey, and based on this information, would design elaborate snares at their prey's most vulnerable time of day: when they were hungry and thirsty.
2. As a result, natural snares made out of such natural elements as strips from the leaflet mid rib of the Ti Kouka, could be found in various flowering trees. Other snares were set as perches for pigeons, right beside streams or pools. These birds, attracted by these comfy-looking devices, eagerly landed on them. However, they had to pass their head through a noose in order to drink, and you can already guess, this was the last time they ever got to put their beaks where they didn't belong! [Rob Chaffart]
3. TAILOR-MADE TEMPTATIONS. The devil had an apple for Eve, a grape for Noah, a wedge of gold for Achan, a change of raiment for Gehazi, a sack of silver for Judas, etc. Each temptation was tailor-made for the that specific person. It’s terrible to have such an informed foe, but we have a better-informed Savior! The good news is that the same presence and power of the Holy Spirit that enabled Jesus to resist temptation resides in every Christian.
C. WE HAVE AN ENEMY
1. A Puritan said, “If God were not my friend, Satan would not be my enemy.” The day we become a friend of God we became Satan’s enemy. Friends, when you became a Christian you were put on the ‘enemy list’ of Hell! And temptation will come your way.
2. “Be sober, be vigilant; because your adversary the devil walks about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour” 1 Pet. 5:8. Satan is described as a lion; he’s on a mission to destroy us. I don’t want to be the devil’s next meal! NOTICE THE HUNTING TECHNIQUES OF LIONS:
II. WHAT MAKES A LION’S HUNT SUCCESSFUL?
A. A LION MUST STALK, UNDETECTED, BEFORE IT ATTACKS
1. Usually the lion’s success is due to surprising his prey. Lions are too slow to catch most animals which are alert to his presence. Animals know that a visible lion is a safe lion; animals aren’t afraid if they can see the lion.
2. A herd of Gazelles will allow a lion to pace up to 100 feet away because that gives them sufficient distance to reach escape speed. The lion’s desire is to be unseen – to lurk & to pounce. That’s like temptation – you won’t see it coming; suddenly it’s on you. That’s why we have to stay sober, awake, and stay in battle formation.
B. LIONS CATCH WHATEVER IS EASIEST. Lions are opportunists. They kill whatever is easiest: the young, sick, the old, and the careless.
C. WHEN THE FIRE GOES OUT THE LIONS MOVE IN
1. A doctor and his wife went to Kenya to watch birds. They were told by the wildlife rangers to make a large fire each night with sufficient logs to burn through the night, to keep the lions away. One night they failed to and woke up to find the fire in embers. Problem? Only one of them woke up. The darkness invited the lions into the tent and the doctor’s wife was killed.
2. When you lose your fire you become a candidate to be the devil’s next meal. The first warning your fire is going out is when you become lukewarm. Luke warm is defined as “I still believe in God but I’m just not that excited about Him anymore.” The only way you can keep your fire going is to lift those hands in praise & prayer and ask God to put fire back in your heart! Some of you are trying to be sophisticated, but when a lion’s after you you’ll forget all that and cry “HEELLPP!”
3. Jim Elliot recorded in his diary, “God makes his ministers a flame of fire, but am I ignitable? God deliver me from the dreaded asbestos of other things! Saturate me with the oil of the Spirit that I may be a flame...Make me Thy fuel, O Flame of God!” Anything that has asbestos in it – I don’t want it. Are you hanging around asbestos (fireproof) people? You need to get them out of your life. They’re NOT drawing you TO God, they’re insulating you FROM God.
D. WHERE STRAGGLERS ROAM, LIONS FEED
1. Lions can’t attack a herd, they’re outnumbered. The lions can get crushed in the stampede. Lions look for the rebellious one who doesn’t hang with the herd, the one who isolates & is all by itself. When the lone Zebra gets far enough from the pack, the lion pounces.
2. Stay in fellowship. Don’t be the straggler who doesn’t think he/she needs the family of God. The church is your herd!
3. You can never be delivered from being tempted, but you can be delivered from “giving in” to temptation. You’re going to be tempted until you get to heaven, but you don’t have to be overcome. The Living Bible paraphrases 1 Cor. 10:13 as “No temptation is irresistible. You can trust God to keep the temptation from becoming so strong that you can’t stand up against it, for he has promised this and will do what he says. He will show you how to escape temptation’s power so that you can bear up patiently against it.”
4. In all temptations, don’t just consider what Satan is offering, but what you’re going to lose by giving into it. WHAT IS TEMPTATION? Temptation is not the sin, temptation is a fork in the road. It’s the presentation of a choice: which road are you going to take? Temptation feeds on curiosity. It tells me what I don’t have and what I can get if I take the next step. Temptation simply means “a test.” It’s a test of whether you love God supremely or something else. Temptation tells you you’ll be happier without God and in disobedience. As 1 Cor. 10:13 tells us, God provides a way out.
III. 4 TOOLS TO HELP YOU TAKE THE ESCAPE ROUTE
A. THE WORD OF GOD
1. In Mt. 4, Jesus had 3 temptations. His sets the precedent for how to respond to temptation; He shows us how victory comes. Counseling won’t help you, nor will laying on hands or church attendance. If you don’t have the Word in you, you can’t win. A Wordless Christian is a powerless Christian. If you’re not reading the Word daily, you’ll be defeated.
2. If Jesus needed the Word of God to defeat the devil, what makes you think you can do it without it? YOU are not an exception! You can’t win without the Word. “It is written!”
B. PRAYER
1. Jesus was in a vulnerable place in the Garden of Gethsemane, but prayer turned the tide. Jesus told them, “Watch and pray so you will not fall into temptation.” Pray – and keep an eye on yourself.
2. ILLUSTRATION.
a. A man was trying to lose weight but his biggest nemesis was the bakery near his house. So when he started to diet he altered his driving path so he wouldn’t pass the bakery. Then one day he forgot and accidentally drove by the bakery and saw in the window a large number of Italian pastries.
b. So he prayed, “Lord, it’s up to You. If you want me to have any of those Italian pastries, then I pray you’ll provide a parking place directly in front of the bakery.” And he told his friend, “Sure enough, on the eighth time around the block, there it was!”
3. Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. Singles – watch and pray! When in church, worship; don’t look for wedding ring fingers, look to God. Dogs are trained not to look at proffered food, but at their master’s/trainer’s faces.
C. SUBMISSION
1. James 4:7, “Submit yourselves therefore to God. Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.” “Submission” is the fighting word to the devil. God is not only more powerful than me, He is wiser than me.
2. Don’t be unequally yoked. We can minister to everyone but we can’t fellowship with everyone. Don’t become entangled. Satan uses many coercive temptations on us – “You won’t be lonely” “You’ll have a man” “You’ll be able to have a kid” etc.
3. It’s IMPOSSIBLE to resist the devil in any area if there is not a submission to God in every area. To bind Satan, say “yes” to God every time. Just before 1 Cor. 10:13 is 1 Cor. 10:12, which says, “Therefore, let him who thinks he stands take heed lest he fall. There has no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.”
D. CHANGE YOUR FRIENDS & ACTIVITIES
EXAMPLE: NO ROOM FOR LIQUOR
1. A man who was an alcoholic was converted to Christ and lived victoriously for several weeks.
2. One day as he passed the open door of a tavern, the pungent odor drifting out aroused his old appetite for liquor.
3. Just then he saw this sign in the window of a near-by cafe: "All the Chocolate Milk you can drink -- $3.00!"
4. Dashing inside, he ordered one glass, then another, and still another. After finishing the third he walked past the tavern and was no longer tempted. Why?
5. He was so full of Chocolate Milk that he had no room for that which would harm him.
6. The lesson is clear: to be victorious over our evil desires, we must leave no room/ opportunity for them to repossess us. This means we need to alter our friends and activities if we want to continue to beat temptation.
CONCLUSION
A. ILLUSTRATION: Taking ‘the Way of Escape’
1. California has some very winding highways that require big trucks to use their brakes a lot. Often their brakes go out on those highways. So along those routes they’ve put “runaway ramps.”
2. These ramps run off the highway into large sand mounds about 50 yards long. So when a truck driver no longer has the ability to STOP, he can hit the runaway ramp and drive into the sand. His wheels sink into the sand and it brings him to a rapid stop.
3. Are you stuck in a temptation and can’t seem to stop? God has a runaway ramp for you. To stop, all you have to do is take the exit ramp, the way of escape, God is offering.
4. Maybe you’ve lost the brakes on your mouth, or your mind. You fantasize what it would be like to be single again. If you walk away from this message without surrendering, you’re going to file for divorce. Turn to God and He’ll help you stop.
B. THE CALL Tell Yourself...
1. “I’m taking the ramp; I’m not going off the cliff.” If you’re losing the battle, today can be your day of victory!
2. Come to the front for prayer. PRAYER
[This is a rewrite of Tim Dilena’s message “Resisting the Devil.”]
