Temptation: An Opportunity to Grow Every temptation is an opportunity to grow. As mature Christians, one of the things we come to realize is that temptations never cease. In fact, they only get worse. But rather than looking at them as stumbling blocks we should instead look at them as opportunities. Satan uses temptations to try and destroy us but God allows it so that we may develop and build character. God could put a hedge around us just like he did with Job, but how would this build our character? How would we grow? Every temptation put before us results in a choice, to do good or evil. We can choose to move forward and grow or stay right where we are and become complacent, or worse yet, move backwards into spiritual death. If we choose to seize the opportunity to do good we are choosing to yield to the Holy Spirit and grow in the character of Christ. The character of Christ is defined by the fruits of the Spirit in Galatians 5:22‐
23: “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self‐control…” Do these fruits develop immediately in our lives? No. It takes time for fruit to mature and ripen. In fact, it will take our entire lifetime here on earth for our character to come to fruition. This is one of the reasons we are here in the first place. Pastor Rick Warren once said: “God develops the fruit of the Spirit in your life by allowing you to experience circumstances in which you're tempted to express the exact opposite quality!” Let's look at an example: Love. How does God teach us to love? By putting people in our lives that love us? Sure, that's a good start but that's not the way we learn real love. It may provide a good example for us but it's easy to love people who love us. God teaches us real love by putting, shall we say, more difficult people into our lives. This develops our character. Let's take another example. Peace, how does God develop real peace within us? By making everything go exactly the way we planned? Did you ever have this conversation with God? “God if you just would have allowed this, then everything would have been alright.” Anyone can be peaceful while they're on vacation, sitting on a quiet beach watching the sunset. That's not the way we learn real peace. The way we learn real peace is by choosing to trust God in those times when we are tempted to blow our tops. Come on, you know what I'm talking about. God uses the opposite of each of these fruits to give us opportunities to make choices. How can we claim that we are growing in Christ if we've never had the opportunity to overcome? How can we say that we've become more faithful when we've not been tempted to be unfaithful? If we've not been tempted to be dishonest, how can we say we have integrity? How can we grow in humility if we don't put away our pride? We need to start looking at our temptations and trials as opportunities to grow in Christ‐‐to become more Christlike. Thankfully, through Jesus Christ, God gave us the ability to overcome temptations and, as a result, to bear fruits of the Spirit. We should be encouraged by the fact that each time we are victorious over temptation we, in some way are growing to be more like Christ. Let me tell you how temptation works. It's not a secret. Satan is very predictable. He has used the same tricks throughout Biblical history. Paul writes in the latter half of 2 Corinthians 2, verse 11: “…for we are not ignorant of his devices.” (NKJV) “…We are very familiar with his evil schemes.” (NLT) We will know Satan's temptation strategy and tactics if we study them out in the Bible. The Bible exposes temptation as a progression: Temptation Desire First, Satan identifies desires in us. Desires can be evil, like the desire to hurt someone out of revenge, or they could be perfectly normal, like the desire to be loved. Temptation always starts from a desire within. Then, Satan comes along and makes little suggestions. If it is an evil desire he's going to try and get us to give in to it. If it's a normal desire he may try to get us to fulfill it in the wrong way or at the wrong time. He might suggest: “Ah go ahead, you deserve it” or “You should have it now, don't wait for God's timing”. Remember that old phrase “Try it you'll like it”. It started in the Garden of Eden and it continues til today. We often think temptation lies all around us but that's not what the Bible says. The Bible says that it begins within us. Mark 7:21‐23 says “For from within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness: All these evil things come from within and defile the man.” I don't know about you, but I've been guilty of a few of those. I've been envious. I've been prideful. I've been foolish. James 4:1 says, “we have a whole army of evil desires within us.” Doubt The next step in the progression of temptation is doubt. Once Satan identifies a desire (or as they say in the computer security industry, once he identifies a vector of attack) he tries to get you to doubt what God said. For this we have no excuse. In the garden, Eve tried to blame the serpent. Adam tried to blame the woman whom God gave. But neither excuse superseded God’s Word. God gave us His Word. He's already told us what is wrong and what is right. We are not left to wonder. But Satan is subtle and cunning. “Did God really say that or did he mean something else?” I am reminded of the time when Jesus was tempted in the wilderness. Satan actually used the word of God to try and tempt Jesus. Even scripture can be used, often out of context, to trick us into doubting and falling. This is where we must rely on the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit dwells within us and He always tells the truth. Satan, on the other hand is incapable of telling the truth. Oh, he'll give you little bits and pieces of truth to make it seem right. But at the core, everything he says is a lie. Deception The next step in the cycle is deception. Remember we started with a desire, and then came doubt, next comes deception. In John 8:44 Jesus says to the Pharisees, “You are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father you will do. He was a murderer from the beginning, and abode not in the truth, because there is no truth in him. When he speaks a lie, he speaks of his own: for he is a liar, and the father of it.” Satan is the father of lies. There is no truth in him. Anything he tells you will be either untrue or just half truth. “You will not surely die. You will become wiser than God. Go ahead; you can get away with it. No one will ever know. This is going to solve all your problems. Everyone else is doing it, why can’t I? It's only a little sin.” Deception starts when we start believing Satan's lies. Interestingly enough, up to this point we have not sinned. It's not a sin to desire. It's not a sin to doubt. It's not a sin to be deceived. It is not until we disobey God that we sin. James 1:14‐16, “But every man is tempted, when he is drawn away of his own lust, and enticed. Then when lust hath conceived, it brings forth sin: and sin, when it is finished, brings forth death. Do not err, my beloved brethren.” When we are deceived we often disobey. When we disobey we sin. Understanding how temptation works is to understand Satan's strategies and tactics. Now that we have an understanding of Satan's strategies and tactics, we need to come up with some strategies and tactics of our own. Let's look at a few techniques we can use to overcome temptation. Overcoming Temptation is Not Sin The first thing we need to understand is that being tempted is not a sin. We shouldn't feel guilty about being tempted. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “No temptation has overtaken you except such as is common to man”; Remember the tactics of Satan and look at temptations as opportunities to make good choices. The fact that you are being tempted should remind you that Satan hates you and desires to destroy you. Look at the example of our Lord in Matthew chapter 4. He was tempted and He never sinned. He acknowledged Satan's attacks, which were lies disguised as half truths, and replaced them with the true Word of God. We can't keep temptations from coming but we can keep them from staying. Martin Luther once said “You cannot keep the birds from flying over your head but you can keep them from building a nest in your hair.” A good example of this is that many do not understand the difference between physical attraction and lust. God gave us an attraction for the opposite sex. This is not something Satan thought up. He perverted it, like he does with everything else, but he did not create it. There are many accounts in the Bible where the physical beauty of a man or a woman is recognized. It's only when we begin to dwell on the attraction that we begin to lust. We can even use our thoughts to commit adultery. This is one of the reasons God provided us with marriage. The joining together of a man and woman is supposed to be a holy part of God’s creation. We must immediately recognize temptations and treat them just as we would any other distraction. We need to refocus our attention on something else that is pleasing to God. Consider the analogy of a spinning lure. Do you know what a spinning lure is? I used to use them when I was a kid down in Florida. When we didn't have any bait to fish with we would use a spinning or spoon lure. It's a shiny spoon‐shaped fishing lure. You put it on your line and you cast it way out into the water. You then slowly reel it back in, just fast enough to make it look like a shiny little fish swimming through the water. The hope is that a bigger fish sees it, comes after it, and tries to eat it. That's the same thing Satan is trying to do with us, only he gets the lure from you. Then he flashes it in front of you in hopes that you'll chase it and swallow it. Each of us has recognizable patterns of temptation. We need to identify them, recognize them when they occur, and be prepared to defend against them to avoid the resulting sin. Satan knows our weaknesses and that is where he will hit us the hardest. If we don't recognize our weaknesses and build up defenses then we are not taking them seriously. We must identify our weaknesses and build strategies for avoiding tempting situations. Fortunately we are not alone. Jesus also knows our weaknesses and He is not going to allow us to be tempted above what we can handle. So what does that say about the times that we have failed? It tells me I should have been able to handle it and I've got some work to do. 1 Corinthians 10:13 says, “There hath 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.” I want you to underline in your Bibles “ye are able”. He will not allow us to be tempted beyond what we are able. And He will provide a way of escape so that we can bear it. People, we need to be looking for those ways of escape. The Bible says He will provide them. I can tell you a few of them. Refocus Refocus your attention elsewhere. When that shiny little lure comes whizzing by, look at and acknowledge it, and refocus your attention on something else that is pleasing to God. Don't go after it. And by all means don't bite into it. Why? Because guess what, there's a hook in there. And as soon as you bite into it Satan is going to pull on the line as hard as he can. Then there's no chance for escape. Except for the grace of God, Satan doesn't have any “big ones that got away” stories. Resist the Devil The Bible does not tell us to resist temptation. It tells us to resist the Devil. James 4:7 says “Therefore submit to God. Resist the devil and he will flee from you.” Remember that the thought in and of itself is not the sin. The thoughts of man are never pure. Our thought patterns can only be changed through the indwelling of the Holy Spirit. And usually this is a refining process over time. I've seen people, including myself, miraculously changed and transformed overnight but God does not wipe out our memories. They can still come back to haunt us if we let them. Philippians 2:12 tells us to “work out our own salvation with fear and trembling” (KJV) “Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear” (NLT) In a way our minds are live televisions with thousands of channels. Sometimes we see or hear something that triggers a tempting thought. We have the ability, if we want to, to change the channel. It is that “not wanting to change the channel” part where we start to cross the line into disobedience and sin. Think about it, you're watching TV and a food commercial comes on. Pick your favorite restaurant. The more you watch the hungrier you get. Pretty soon you're on the way to the fridge or to Taco Bell to fulfill your desire. Now I'm not saying eating is a sin, although gluttony could be. What I am saying is temptation is like a commercial playing in our mind. The more we let it play the closer we get to sin. Why not just learn to change the channel to something else? When my wife and I first had kids we quickly learned that we had to have our finger poised on the channel button of the remote so that our children would not see the wrong content. It's the same way with our thoughts. Be ready to activate the thought switcher at all times. Also have the destination picked out ahead of time. You could have a scripture, or a song, or a promise that God gave you. Another thing we tend to do is repeat tempting thoughts to ourselves. This can eventually lead to giving in to the very temptation that we are trying to avoid. You're never going to stop smoking if you keep saying “I've got to stop smoking, I've got to stop smoking…”, it takes action. It's like you continue to watch the tempting commercial while saying to yourself “stop watching this commercial, stop watching this commercial”. Nothing is going to happen until you change the channel. Get up, pray to God for help, read your Bible, sing a song of worship, call a fellow believer, go run around the block, anything but sit and do nothing! You may have to physically leave the place in where you are. If you are standing with a group of people and they begin to gossip, tell them to stop. If they don't, then leave. But don't join in! You may wrestle with thoughts in your mind. If Satan begins to tempt you with your thoughts, then fix your thoughts on Jesus. There is no quicker way to make the devil flee than to fix your thoughts on the Cross. You are able to make a choice. Ignore the temptation and move on to something that is pleasing to God. God has given you this ability! Once you make the simple choice to ignore the temptation the devil flees. What might have been a sin turns in to an opportunity to grow in Christ. James 1:12 says, “blessed is the man that endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him.” This message is also available online under the same title, “Temptation: An Opportunity to Grow”; on the Bethel website. www.bethelbiblical.org