Truth or Fiction – The ends justify the means July 9, 2010

Truth or Fiction – Ends don’t justify means

 The devil’s temptation nearly always presents an ungodly means to achieve a godly result. The voice of the enemy will repeatedly tell you “the end will justify the means.” This is a lie.

The truth of God is that the means are just as important as end results and goals. Ungodly methods and means are never to be used, no matter how godly the end may be.

 One of the enemy’s schemes is to offer an ungodly means of getting to a godly goal. He takes a legitimate need or desire and suggests we meet that need in way to goes contrary to the Word of God. What do I mean by that?

                Is it wrong for a person to want to have their sexual needs met? No

                            Is it wrong to have sex outside of marriage, have an affair?  Yes

                 Is it wrong to want to not feel emotional pain? No

                               Is it wrong to take drugs, get drunk or cut in order to not feel the pain? Yes 

                Is it wrong to want nice things? No

                                Is it wrong to steal in order to get them? Yes

 Read the following verses:

 Luke 4:1-3

1 Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the Jordan and was led around by the Spirit in the wilderness
2 for forty days, being tempted by the devil. And He ate nothing during those days, and when they had ended, He became hungry.
3 And the devil said to Him, “If You are the Son of God, tell this stone to become bread.”

Was it wrong for Jesus to be hungry after fasting 40 days? No

Would it have been wrong if misused His spiritual power and turned stones into bread to curb  the hunger? Yes

 What need do you have in your life that Satan is trying to get you to meet in an inappropriate way?

 What are you going to do about it?

 If you fall for Satan’s scheme how do you think that would affect your relationship with God and His plans for your life?

Let’s take this a different direction. When looking for which movie to watch or book to read, and it is filled with language, immorality or violence but it has a great ending, line, great videography etc. Does the end justify the means?  This is the decision I was faced with this week. When making that decision how does it hold up to Philippians 4:8?

     “Finally bretheren, whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is right, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is of good repute, if there is any excellence and if anything worthy of praise, dwell on these things.”

 The next time you hear someone say The end will justify the means, how will you respond?

So you say you want to resist temptaion June 16, 2010

   So you say you want to resist the temptation.  Are you willing to do whatever it takes? Don’t answer too quickly, this will be harder than you might expect. Actually the hardest part is the initial decision that you want to do this and then the second hardest part will be to take the first steps to make that happen. It will be like training for a sport or deciding to workout. You must first decide you are going to do so, then you must do it. But it is not enough to do it once; you must make it a part of your daily routine. The first week or so is usually the hardest but the more you workout the stronger you become and your endurance will increase. It will be the same with resisting temptation.

    The good news is, that as a believer you have the power and the resources available to you through the Holy Spirit within you. But although God has made the provision for you to resist temptation it is up to you to determine to do so. Each day you will need to renew that commitment and in the very beginning it may be a moment by moment choice you will have to make.  As you train yourself to choose to resist you will become stronger and stronger and  will build up a resistance to those things which once seemed impossible to resist.

   The first step is to take away all of the excuses. Excuses are like your escape hatch. Escape hatches not only give you a way out, they also give you a way back in. If you seal the escape hatch shut you will no longer have a way to enter back in to the thing that tempts you.

   Today we will look at what I believe is the #1 excuse people use to give in to temptation:

                The blame game – Someone else made me do it

 

This is excuse goes all the way back to the garden. Take a look at what happens when God confronts Adam and Eve after they ate of the forbidden fruit from the Tree of the Knowledge of Good and Evil in Genesis 3.

Genesis 3:8-13 

8 They heard the sound of the Lord God walking in the garden in the cool of the day, and the man and his wife hid themselves from the presence of the Lord God among the trees of the garden.
9 Then the Lord God called to the man, and said to him, “Where are you?”
10 He said, “I heard the sound of You in the garden, and I was afraid because I was naked; so I hid myself.”
11 And He said, “Who told you that you were naked? Have you eaten from the tree of which I commanded you not to eat?”
12 The man said, “The woman whom You gave to be with me, she gave me from the tree, and I ate.”
13 Then the Lord God said to the woman, “What is this you have done?” And the woman said, “The serpent deceived me, and I ate.”

Read this passage and answer the following questions:

                What was the man’s response when God asked him where they were?

                Did God not know where they were? Why do you think He asked that question?

                What questions did God ask next and why?

                When man realized that his “cover” was blown, what was his response?

                What was the woman’s response?

                How do you respond when God confronts you? Do you own up to it immediately or do you blame someone or something for giving in to the temptation?

Let’s read a little further and see how this worked for the man and the woman. Read Genesis 3:14-19

 Genesis 3:14-19 

14 The Lord God said to the serpent, “Because you have done this, Cursed are you more than all cattle, And more than every beast of the field; On your belly you will go, And dust you will eat All the days of your life;
15 And I will put enmity Between you and the woman, And between your seed and her seed; He shall bruise you on the head, And you shall bruise him on the heel.”
16 To the woman He said, “I will greatly multiply Your pain in childbirth, In pain you will bring forth children; Yet your desire will be for your husband, And he will rule over you.”
17 Then to Adam He said, “Because you have listened to the voice of your wife, and have eaten from the tree about which I commanded you, saying, ‘You shall not eat from it’; Cursed is the ground because of you; In toil you will eat of it All the days of your life.
18 “Both thorns and thistles it shall grow for you; And you will eat the plants of the field;
19 By the sweat of your face You will eat bread, Till you return to the ground, Because from it you were taken; For you are dust, And to dust you shall return.”

Who did God address first? Why do you think He did that?

What was the consequence for the serpent’s behavior?

Who did God address next?

What was the consequence for her behavior?

Then God addressed Adam, the head of his household.  What was to be his consequence?

Did their excuses work?

Do you think your excuses for yielding to temptation will work today?

What are some of the excuses you may have used:

                Everyone else is doing it

                My friends talked me into it

                Know one will know

                I am ADD, ADHD

                I had an abusive childhood

                I was abandoned as a child

                My circumstances set me up for it

                I am just wired that way

No one can force another person to give in to a temptation. They may entice you or encourage or even invite you to sin with them, but they can not force you to engage in sinful behavior. They can only push your buttons, you control the way you respond. You must take full responsibility for your behavior. How can you do that?

1. Decide ahead of time to not make excuses
2. Determine to do the right thing and walk in obedience to God’s Word.
3. If you do find yourself in sin: Stop immediately, confess it (own up to it without excuses), ask forgiveness (1 John 1:9),  do whatever it takes to make it right and walk in obedience.

 Genesis 3:1-7  sets the context for the passage you just looked at. As you read Genesis 3:1-7 you will see that this passage is a perfect case study of temptation, for sin cannot be blamed on environment or heredity.

Take responsibility for your behavior. (Prov 1:10-16)

Start today

Responding to Temptation June 16, 2010

Is there an area in your life where you seem to keep failing in? Do you ever ask yourself why you can’t control this area when everything else in your life seems to be under control?  Why is this happening? How are you responding? Do you know what to do?

Do you feel angry, bitter, resentful or hateful? Are you acting in a way that seems vindictive, manipulative or revengeful? Are you willing to address the fact that these feelings very well could be related to a temptation that you are not responding to in a godly way?

There is a godly way to respond to temptation and to resist the strategy of the enemy in your life. But first, you must honestly ask yourself, Do I really want to resist the temptation?

Resisting temptation doesn’t just happen, it’s a learning process! Where are you in that process? The first step must be to determine that you want to resist the temptation.