Temptation

Pause…part one…41 days…by Andy Stanley

A study looked at the relationship between a child’s ability to demonstrate delayed gratification as a child and as a teen. Try this at home with skittles or cookies…five now or twenty later.

There is always more at stake when it comes to temptation than what we think. The ability to withstand temptation has a lot to do with your confidence in and with God…not just self control. People don’t become Christians because they don’t think they can behave like God. Christians just have other stuff going on.

Matthew 3:16…what we miss when it comes to temptation. As soon as Jesus was baptized he came up out of the water.
17…a voice from heaven said ‘this is my Son, in whom I am well pleased.’
4:1…the very next verse…God sent Jesus out into the desert to be tempted by the devil. God did the same thing with Abraham, Moses, Peter, and all twelve disciples. Lord’s prayer…lead us not into temptation.
2…after fasting for forty days and nights Jesus was hungry.
3…the tempter came to Jesus.

Then Jesus was tempted in three ways…all had to do with Jesus’ confidence with God. In all the temptations that we face in our life, all relate back to one of these three temptations…to do things in an evil way. You hear people say ’once I became a Christian I was able to deal or handle this thing.’ Like the Wizard of Oz…ignore the man behind the curtain. By God’s grace we can get the traction to overcome, to break the power of sin now.

There is always more at stake than what’s in front of me right now, than what we think. Then we give into temptation and feel guilty. We were all at stake when Jesus was tempted…not just will I turn the stone into bread, etc.

What is at stake when I am tempted…

Your Future
Why parents over-react…because we see the future. Remember the first time you saw Darth Vader. He tried to tempt Luke…’it is your destiny …destroy the emperor and rule by my side.’

Someone Else’s Future
Your wife and kids, your employees, those under you, the people who love you. Why there are broken homes. People give into drink…it’s all about me.

Your Faith
Sin is different than a mistake…you damage your relationship with God. People drift away from God by repeatedly violating their conscience…behaved your way away so much that then you don’t like church any more, you don’t sense God’s presence any more. You don’t think God will be coming into the room to give you those skittles.

Say to yourself…temptation, you will not take away my family, my future, my faith. When young, you have a lot of future at stake. When old, you have a lot of legacy at stake. In the middle, you’ve got a lot of both. Get into the habit of saying this!

We all believe in temptation, even if we all don’t believe in God.