This session is temptation the real story. Everyday we make choices that impact our lives. We can be blindsided by the avalanches of the voices that impact us. We can be pulled by different appetites in our life.
Today’s Question: How can you and I be truly aware of what’s going on around us?
Sometimes when we make choices we make them for ME. We are capable of living wisely and boldy.
These next 8 weeks we are going to look at specific areas, (i.e. lust) and how they affect different areas of our lives. And we are going to look at the freedom that God gives us.
DVD Clip – Wall Street – Michael Douglas convinces Charlie Sheen to do something for him that doesn’t seem legal or right. What’s the lure behind the lure?
How would you define temptation?
- Choice
- Something You Constantly Think Of
- Something That Nags You
- When Your Wants And Your Should Divide
- The Need Whether We Are Aware Of Or Not
- Attractive And Godly But Misplaced or Wrong Time
- Deceptive Enticement
We aren’t tempted by dog crap, we are tempted by beautiful things, and it’s just bad timing. A great lie is a lie that’s close to the truth.
What are images of temptation?
- Porn
- 100 million dollars
- Young Women on the beach
- Alcohol
- Dieting (to eat food not good for you)
- Self Images
- Nice Car
- Shortcuts (cheating, not doing the job fully)
- Sleep
- Checking Out
Is there something good at some level to temptation that is good that we don’t see?
Temptation is to bait or entice against the grain of God’s good intention.
Proverbs 14:12 - There is a way that seems right to a man, but in the end it leads to death.
You not only have to want what you want, you are also going to have to want what your wants leads to. But our problem we don’t always want what are wants lead to.
Temptation is ultimately identity and rather than action. When we look at the Garden of Eden, we think that God is telling us to act good, but when Satan tempts Adam and Eve, he questions God’s integrity. When we believe that we can take things out of God’s hands and into our own, chaos is inevitable.
John 8:44-45: You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father's desire. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there is no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. Yet because I tell the truth, you do not believe me!
If we don’t know who we are ultimately we are very liable to do things that lead to sin. We sin internally before we ever sin externally.
C.S. Lewis - We battle temptation best when we reorient our entire life towards God.
Our challenge - Learning to be truth discerners – What’s the message beneath the message? What’s the sin beneath the sin? What’s the problem beneath the problem?
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