Skip to content The Christian's Field Guide to Trials - James, Part 2 Sep 15 · 52 min ...more
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Empowering multimedia ministry for bold Christian living: Weekend Messages, Deep End Podcast, Deep Dive Bible Study. Tim Hatch, Lead Pastor, Waters Church, 26 years of pastoral ministry, book author.
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0:00 You are listening to Waters Church podcast. Waters Church is a multisite, multigeneration community of faith on the East Coast of America. Now for a message from our pastor.0:13 Well, good morning to you. Good morning to our other locations. So many things happening in Watershed. Positive things. You're gonna hear about that at the end. I wanna get to the text to the scripture early today. James0:23 part 2. Take out your notes. They look like this in house. James part 2, The Christian's field guide to temptation. Now last week we said the message title was the Christian's field guide to trials.0:35 But the Christian's life is not just filled with trials, the Christian's life is filled with temptation. Somebody say temptation. If you've ever struggled with temptation, just raise your hand. Be honest. Come on.0:46 Confession starts now. Amen. We're all going to wrestle with temptation. In fact, we're going to wrestle with 2 things that begin with t, our entire life. Trials on the left, temptation on the0:58 right. And every Christian has to walk a tight rope. Every every Christian has to keep themselves centered in the Lord, knowing that no trial is apt is for our evil. God is1:10 going to bring about a blessing in the testing. How many know there's a blessing in distressing? That's what we talked about last if you were here last week, you should have given1:22 me a much better amen. Because we have to have a joyful optimism that in the midst of the trial, God is working through us, in us, on us,1:34 for us. We have to surrender in the trial. How many remember that? 0.2. We have to surrender. Let the trial take me where God wants me. Ultimately expecting a blessing as a result of the1:45 testing. On the right is an entirely different subject that James opens this letter with. 2 subjects that he opens up with to the churches that he writes this. The book of James is not a book. It's a letter from1:57 a pastor. In the first century, Jesus's half brother. It's a letter to help us walk this walk and live out our faith. And we have so many new young Christians that want our church. This book is perfect for us to2:09 go through verse by verse, and we're taking our time. Is that okay? We're going take our time. We might have to take a break a couple weeks from now to do some other stuff, but we're going to go through this book chapter2:20 verse. Okay. So James opens with these 2 topics, trials, temptations. Every Christian's issues will be centered on those 2 things. And there's a difference. There's a2:32 difference between the trials and the temptations, and I want you to write down the difference between trials and temptations. God tests me to bring out my best. Sin tempts me to bring out my worst. God2:44 is only bringing trials into your life, ultimately allowing them. He's not actually bringing them. He's allowing them to come into your life so that you get better. He wants your best to come out.2:56 James is going to qualify, however, that there is no such thing as God tempting you in sin. God does not lead people to sin. Life leads people to sin. This world leads people to sin. Your heart leads you to3:08 sin. The devil leads you to sin, but but but God doesn't do that. But sin does tempt you to bring out your worst. So you're always going to have to wrestle with these things. Unfortunately, until3:20 you die or if the Lord comes, you're going to have to wrestle with trials and temptations. But understand and quantify both of them. If it's a test, it's for my best. If it's a temptation, it's for my worst. So3:31 I can embrace the trial, I have to reject the temptation. Is that clear? And James leads off with this topic of trial and temptation because that's3:43 everybody's struggle. Every Christian's struggle. I don't know if you heard of a man that they call Little Lee. Little Lee was a Taiwanese man. His name is Little Lee, the3:55 moniker is just to protect his innocence. He got into role playing games, RPGs, online multiplayer video games. But he got seriously addicted4:07 and went to internet cafes almost every day for hours on end to play video games. Eventually hours were not enough. He would go days without break,4:20 playing online video games. He would eventually quit school at the age of 14. He would leave his home, his parents' home,4:31 and literally lived on the street and lived in Internet cafes that were often open 24 hours a day, and play video games sometimes 2, sometimes 3, sometimes 4 days straight.4:44 Only taking breaks to go to the bathroom or eat a minimal amount of food. He was addicted. Eventually, after a check this out. 5 day4:55 straight video game binge. Little Lee experienced a stroke and fell dead at the keyboard. Sadly, his addiction costed5:07 him his life. Maybe you've heard of the name Robert Pettinato in New York City in 20 20. Fire and rescue had to go into his home5:18 after neighbors complained of a smell coming from his apartment and having not seen Robert for several weeks. Concern was at an all time high for his safety and his life.5:31 Rescuers arrived to realize that they could hardly get into the apartment. It was cluttered with stuff, with junk, with trash, with newspaper clippings, with every5:43 imaginable piece of rubbish you can imagine. He was a classic hoarder of the nth degree. They had to dig through the rubble, and eventually they found5:54 Robert laying dead at the bottom of the pile of junk in his apartment. The autopsy revealed that the toxic smells and chemicals in the air from6:06 the decaying rubbish all around him was perhaps the cause of his death. Robert had an addiction and it cost him6:18 his life. In the UK, there is a very, I guess you could say, funny entertaining show, although it's not that funny, but it is entertaining. It's called my strange addiction.6:30 And it featured on 1 episode a woman named Evelyn. She had the most crazy addiction I've ever heard of. Hers was not your average drug, alcohol, or6:42 promiscuity addiction. No. Evelyn was addicted to, I kid you not, eating soap. She couldn't get enough of soap and washing detergent.6:54 Her compulsion lasted for years during which she consumed multiple bars and large quantities of powdered powdered detergent. Evelyn described feeling7:06 an irresistible control uncontrollable urge to eat these substances stating that she enjoyed the taste and the texture of soap, especially when she felt stressed.7:18 Over time, this addiction became more severe with her consuming up to 5 bars of soap a week. Thankfully, Evelyn eventually got hope, and doctors and psychologists worked out her addictive7:30 issues, and she is free from eating soap, and she's still alive as far as we know to this day, but she still understands that that's her weakness. How many7:41 need to understand today that anything has the capacity to become controlling in your life? The great puritan preacher of the 16 hundreds, a man by the name of John7:53 Owen wrote this famous line. He said, be killing sin or sin will be killing you. Take charge of what's going on on the inside or what's on the8:05 inside will control you and kill you. Therefore, these passages instructive and beneficial to us today. James8:17 takes on the very delicate, but the very important topic of temptation to sin. We don't have enough preachers today talking about sin in America's pulpits. We don't have enough preachers8:29 calling out what's going on in the hearts of men and women throughout this country. I I've heard the story of 3 pastors over the last 6 years who took their own life because a8:40 porn addiction became an all consuming addiction in their life. And we got too many pastors who aren't talking about the real trouble, the real battle that we're in. Ladies and gentlemen, we're not in a battle for8:52 political power in this country. We're not in a battle over Ukraine and Russia or Israel and Gaza. We're in a battle over men and women's hearts. And 2000 years ago, Jesus Christ shed his blood on the9:04 cross to to nail a death blow to the devil so that you and I could overcome in Jesus name. And through the blood, we can win something that's trying to kill us.9:16 Temptation's gonna come. Trials are gonna come. You gotta be able to handle both if you're gonna be a follower of Jesus. So James wants us to be clear about something. First and foremost,9:28 God is not tempting you. Look at verse 13. He says, let no 1 say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God. God cannot be tempted with evil. He himself tempts no 1. I'm so thankful for9:40 that. God's not the author of evil. Later James will say, he's the father of lights. There is no shadow in God. You understand that you'll never see a shadow hanging around the father because he emanates light.9:52 He is the father of lights. He is completely light. He is 100 percent good. He is 100 percent pure. And every thought that he has toward you is 100 percent good and 100 percent pure.10:05 So the evil, the struggle, the wrestling with trials and and temptation, sin, that's not from God. No. No. No. There there's something called the world out there. There's something called the flesh in here, and there's10:16 something called the devil in the atmosphere. And all 3 are targeting you and trying to bring you down from the inside out. I think about this10:28 moment. Why does James bring this up about don't blame God for your temptation? Do you know why? Because people in the church that he was addressing in the first century in this letter were were blaming God10:40 for their sins. That's kind of unheard of. No, it's not. It's as old as the garden of Eden. You know how10:52 to be lame? Just blame. Blame comes standard in the human condition. The bible opens with the story of perfection and11:03 beauty. The garden of Eden, absolute paradise. God dwelling with man in harmony. No sin, no shame, no sickness, no pain, no cancer, no diabetes, no COVID. Perfect11:15 harmony, God, man, dwelling together. Adam enjoying the beautiful fruit of the garden. And then God gives him a woman and marries them11:27 off. A couple days later, she's having a conversation with a talking snake. And she eats and she sins against God, and they hear the voice of God coming back to the garden to visit11:39 them 1 day, and they fear for their lives, and they jump in the bushes and hide from God. And God shows up after man's sins, and he says to Adam, what did you do? And Adam's first11:51 2 words are what? The woman. The woman. And you know what the Hebrew word for man is? The Hebrew word for man is ish. The12:02 Hebrew word for woman is ishah. And so I just hear Adam saying when God says, what did you do? Adam going, Isha. And then he adds insult12:14 to injury to God, and he says, the woman you gave me. This was you. You did this. I was fine with the chimpanzees12:26 and the rhinos. I was riding the giraffe just 2 weeks ago. We were having a great time plucking fruit from high trees. It was amazing. But then you gave me a sedative, I fell asleep, and I woke up12:38 hitched. I got married, and it was downhill from there. True story. God says, okay, lady,12:50 what's your story? What does she say? The serpent, the serpent that you made deceived me. Blame.13:02 Man, we've been doing this for as long as we've been around. We do it today, but with different language. We say things like God made me this way, or I13:14 was born this way. Tell that to Jeffrey Dahmer. Does that fly with Jeffrey Dahmer? He's chopping up his neighbor and eating them for breakfast. Is he okay? Is that okay? He was born that way. No. No. No. It's only13:26 certain things that are fine. Blaming God happens not just in the world, it happens in the church. Let's13:38 clean our house up. Let's get our thoughts right. Let's get off our high horse and and realize that this this isn't God's fault. Now there's another reason that I think13:50 that James piggybacks temptations to sin with trials that we might be in. Because some of you know this firsthand. When you're in a14:01 trial, when the chips are down, when life is not going where you want it to go, how many know in those moments you are more susceptible to the enemy's temptation14:13 to find yourself, listen to the words, an escape, an outlet, a place of play to handle the14:25 stress of life not going where I wanted to go. Write this down so I know you're getting it. When I am tried on the outside, I will be tempted on the inside. When I'm14:37 not getting what I think I deserve in marriage, I might be tempted to flirt with someone I'm not married to, or look online at somebody I shouldn't. When I'm not getting14:49 the position that I believe is due me, I might be tempted to steal, lie, and cheat, and take credit for work I didn't do. When people are nasty to me on Monday, I'm going15:01 be nasty to my family Monday night, because how dare they treat me that way? I'm just going to take it out on somebody else. Is this starting to prick a nerve with anybody? We're only 5 minutes in, and I feel like I've15:13 got enemies all throughout this room and our other rooms, but this is the reality. Watch out. In the midst of your trial, the enemy is going to come and give15:24 you an opportunity to indulge your flesh as a way to to deal with the stress. I think of Abram. Before he was Abraham, he was Abram. And he was called15:36 out of Ur of the Chaldees, what is now modern day Iraq, what was formerly Babylon. He was called out of that to go to the nation that God promised him, the land that God promised him, the land of Canaan, the the place of15:45 Israel, still Israel to this day. He travels 800 miles into that place, and the Bible says, as soon as Abram gets there, there was a severe famine in the land. How many know15:57 that you can listen to God and do what God says and still experience an extreme famine in the land? Just because you did what God told you to do doesn't mean it's all going to be rosy and peachy for16:09 you. So he gets to where God wants him, and immediately he gets a famine coming at him. So the Bible says that he tucks tails and runs, and he runs right into Egypt. And the scripture says that he sells out his16:21 wife. He says, listen, everybody thinks you're beautiful, and if I if I'm your husband, they're gonna kill me and take you. So tell them you're my sister, and it will go well with me. That's father Abraham. I don't16:33 remember that song. I don't remember that part of the song that I sang about father Abraham in Sunday school. Father Abraham pimped his wife and pimped his wife was father Abraham. I never sang16:45 that part. Anybody else with me on this? Wives, be careful that you don't pray, God, make my husband more like Abraham. Be careful about that prayer. So the Lord spares16:57 Sarah, and she doesn't sleep with Pharaoh, and Pharaoh finds out about her dreams as a deception. And so he sends him off, and he sends them off with goods and and and blessing, and Abram comes back to the land. Now some17:08 of you are gonna put something together in the scripture you've never put before put together before, and this is gonna be good for you. He comes back to the land from Egypt. But God had promised that he would have many17:17 many sons, but he's got none. And so he's being tried and he gets tempted again and this time his wife comes and says, you know when we were e in17:29 Egypt, we picked up a maid servant named Hagar. You hearing this? If he had never given in to the first trial with temptation, he never would have17:41 gotten Hagar in the first place. She's the 1 who should sleep with Hagar, my maidservant, and have babies through her, we'll have a family. And because Abram was a red blooded man, he said, okay.17:55 Slept with the maidservant, produced Ishmael. Ishmael is the father of the Arabs, the father of the Muslims. Couple years later, he had another son named18:07 Isaac. Isaac became the father of what? The Jewish people. And we've got an election coming up, and it's amazing that 5000 years18:19 later, they're still talking about this. This is still a problem Because in the midst of his trial, he18:30 gave into temptation. I'm trying to tell somebody that your family's at stake today. Your children are at stake today. This is not about you. This is much bigger than you.18:42 You're going to have children and grandchildren. Somebody in this place today in our other locations, you understand? You get free from this temptation. You get free from this addiction. You get free from the lies of the18:53 enemy that God's not just gonna bless you, he's gonna bless the children that come from you. That you're gonna have children who will thank God you did what you did in your day to believe him,19:05 and the blessing is intergenerational. That's what my Bible tells me. God blesses to the thousandth generation, those that love him and keep his ob keep his commandments. And some of you need this19:17 today because it's not just about you. There is generational blessing coming to you and through you. You might be tempted in the19:29 midst of your trial. You're waiting for mister right. And how many know when you're waiting for mister right, mister wrong is everywhere. And he's coming for you. You don't even have to find him, he finds19:40 you. He doesn't believe in the Lord. He doesn't go to church. He doesn't honor the Lord. He's just gonna come get you and rob you of all the blessing God wants to give you. In the midst of your trial, don't settle for19:52 the temptation. This is big. Be killing sin or sin will be killing you. So James has these 6 verses in this20:03 passage, amazing verses on how Christians need to handle temptation. 3 points and then we're done. Number 1, when tempted, consider the trajectory. When tempted, consider where20:15 it's going to go. That's what I'm saying here, And that's what James is saying. We think of sin as something we do, but that's just not20:27 true. There's a process through it. So James first verse 14 says, but each person, underline each person because this is everybody,20:38 everybody is tempted. Each person is tempted when he or she is lured. Somebody say lured. Lured. And enticed. Somebody say enticed. Enticed. By his own20:50 or her own what? Desire. Again, we think of sin as something that we did, and we say, oh, I wish I never did that. And then and and we'll obsess about21:02 it, and we'll feel terrible about it, and we'll just walk away and say, ah, and then eventually we'll do it again. It's, ah, I can't believe I did it again. Okay. But listen, sin is not a moment. Sin is a process.21:14 That's that's what James is saying here in verse 14. It's a process. In fact, there's 3 things. They all begin with p. Write this down. Sin is progressive and possessive and poisonous. Sin is progressive. It21:26 starts with temptation. The temptation leads to enticement, luring. It becomes possessive. It becomes part of our day, part of our routine, part of our mental acuity, part part of our mental21:38 meditation. And before you know it, it owns us. And then once it's done owning us, it kills us. It poisons our lives. And all21:49 starts with what what what James calls your own desire. Say desire. Desire. Your own desire is a word that is also translated in the New Testament as lust.22:01 Lust. So here's what lust is. I want you to understand. Lust is not just a sexual thing. It's not. You can lust after stuff. You can lust after video22:13 games. You can lust after soap. So lust, write this down, is a normal desire gone haywire.22:25 That's what lust is. Hear me very clearly, there is nothing wrong with your wants. It's what happens to those wants inside of you22:37 that's the problem. Pop quiz, let's see how confident you are of what I just said. Is sex a sin? No.22:49 Is food, eating food, is that a sin? Mm-mm. Is soap a sin? How about this 1? Is23:01 people's praise a sin? See, you're less confident in that 1, aren't you? It's not a sin. You could actually call it encouragement.23:13 The problem is when that good thing becomes an ultimate thing in your life. Now it's everything. Now if I don't have it, I fly off the handle at those I love.23:25 Now if I don't have it, I get it with unreasonable, maybe illegal, or at least immoral means to have it. Now I want it to be bigger in my23:37 life, and I start to obsess about it, and think about it, and meditate on it, and walk around it, and just play with it until it's now it's just controlling me. And23:49 this is the language of fishing. Go back to verse 14. James says, you're first lured. This is a fishing term in the original Greek language of the New Testament. It's.24:01 It's a fishing term. So there's a lure. When you fish, you use a lure. I how many of you have ever been fishing? I've been fishing, and I stink at fishing. Here's why I'm here's why I'm terrible at fishing.24:13 I'm lazy. I think throw something on the hook, throw it in the water, and the fish should just eat it because I gave it to them. That's lazy fishing. But good24:25 fishermen know that each fish needs a different lure. You need this for bass, you need that for trout, you need this for catfish. And if you go24:37 to Bass Pro Shops, you will see aisle after aisle after aisle of different lures. You know why? Because fish have different appetites. Ladies and gentlemen, consider yourself a fish24:49 for a moment. And the devil or 1 of his associates, 1 of his lieutenants or 1 of his captains or 1 of his sergeants in the unseen spiritual army that is coming for your spirit, coming from your family, coming for your25:00 and he has assigned someone to you, he has assigned 1 of these spirits to you, and understand that he has studied you, and he knows you, and he's been to the spiritual Bass Pro shop somewhere in the demonic25:12 realms, and he has plucked off the shelf the exact lure that he knows will catch you. And what lures you might not lure me. And25:24 husbands and wives understand what lures your husband or wife does not maybe lure you. We all got something that the devil knows is going to work for us. And he knows. You know, you just go, what do you gotta use? You25:36 gotta use the clear lure for for pastor Tim in Massachusetts. You know, that clear 1 with the rattle inside, that with the little thing that the little flipper that flips like this so that so that when it comes, it makes25:46 noise and it moves, and he's like, oh. Now here's what you don't understand, and here's what James says under the surface. Write this down. There's no place to fill in blanks. You're gonna have to just write this in the25:58 margins. Listen. The lure is a lie. The lure is a lie. In fact, when you're fishing, do you understand you're lying to fish? I26:11 believe it's sanctified lying because you got to eat. And Jesus chose fishermen to be his disciples, so it can't be sinful. The lure is a lie. You tell the fish this is good for you, but26:23 it's actually death, isn't it? Okay. So they are tricked. They are lured. They are deceived by what is attractive to them, and then it says enticed. This is another word in the Greek. It's another26:35 fishing term. It means to be baited. It means that it becomes something that just is now part of your appetite. Can I tell you that you've got to be careful when temptation comes? Because it's more than just the sinful26:46 act. No. The devil has a far bigger plan for you. He doesn't just want you to do the act, he wants you to develop an appetite for the act. He wants you to develop26:58 more than an appetite. He wants you to develop an identity around it. This is just who I am. This is just me.27:10 And that's when we start making excuses, don't we? And and we start to say the things that the world says. I was made this way. This is you know, God just you know, he's letting me and I am this. This is why alcoholics27:21 will say, I'm an alcoholic. Shopaholics will say, I'm just a I'm just a shopaholic. Thieves will say, I'm just a kleptomaniac. Psychology can diagnose, but they can't27:33 deliver. And some of you got to stop saying your sin is you. It's not. If you're a child of God, if you're a Christian, if you've27:45 confessed Christ, your worst desire is not your identity. Your identity is you're a child of the most high27:56 God in heaven. You are saved, you are sanctified, you are chosen, you will be glorified. When Jesus comes, you're gonna see him,28:08 and then you're gonna be like him 100 percent. In Jesus' name. That's who I am. I I got some stuff that needs to be fixed, but I'm a28:20 child of God. I'm a royal priesthood. I'm a holy nation. That's who I am. Don't put your desires in your heart to become your identity. That's what I'm trying to28:32 tell you. You gotta stop it. That's worldly thinking. You are Christ followers. You are children of the most high God. You are you are members of the kingdom of heaven. And what this world teaches you28:44 to say about these things is not what we say. We listen to what God says about it. So he says you're gonna be enticed, and you're gonna be lured by this inordinate desire gone haywire, and28:56 then eventually, it kills you because sin is progressive, possessive, and poisonous. So look at verse 15, the desire And29:07 James flips now from language about fishing. Look at the language. Fishing in verse 14 to biology in verse 15. He says, then when desire has conceived,29:19 that's the language of of biology, it gives birth to sin. And when sin is fully grown, it brings forth what? Death. So this is29:30 incredible language that James gives us to help us understand the nature of temptation to sin. Because here's what he's saying, and every parent knows this. Everybody who's ever conceived,29:42 you know this. Once the conception happens, there's no stopping what's going to happen. Eventually, the conception grows. You know, it29:54 gestates or whatever you want to say develops, then there's birth, and every parent knows that the moment that child comes into your life, your life as you know30:05 it is over. And anybody who's ever put the child locks on the cabinet under the sink knows exactly what I'm talking about. Because30:17 that conception, listen, took on a life of its own. Now this is how James talks about sin. That sin is not something that just30:29 becomes a habit or an occasional tryst. It takes on a life of its own. It becomes30:40 possessive. It becomes controlling. It changes how you live. Before you know it, you're always cleaning up the mess that that little child of sin creates in your spiritual house. You're30:52 running like a mad person through the horns of your house trying to cover up for all the things that that child of sin has done to you. Before you know it, you're hiding from friends and family. You got no time for31:02 anything else because you're busy running around trying to care for that stinking child of sin that's inside of you. And James is saying, don't you understand that if you don't deal with this now, it will become31:11 consuming, and it will eventually grow beyond you, and it will kill you. Underline death in your notes, because we've to talk about this theologically. Some of you got to realize, and I'm going give you a31:22 theological compartment in your brain that's never been opened, but it's time to open it. What kind of death is James talking about? Well, yes, he is talking about spirit. He is talking about physical death.31:35 Sin can kill you. You drink enough, you'll die. You smoke enough, you'll die. You snort enough, you'll die. 3 pastors in the last 6 years that committed suicide because of an addiction they couldn't get31:46 over. It will kill you. But listen, I don't think he's talking about you losing your salvation. I think he's talking about things dying in you. It could kill your31:58 marriage. It could kill your relationship to your parent or to your child. It could kill your job, your opportunities, your educational, you know, capacities. Those those things can die. But here's something else that32:09 somebody again, a book a category you've never understood, but it's totally biblical. Sometimes to spare you, God lets it kill you32:20 and brings you to heaven. I absolutely believe this. I absolutely believe that's what happened to many Old Testament and New Testament believers who could32:32 not get a hold of the controlling situation in their life. And death becomes a sweet mercy.32:44 Because the damage that they would cause to people around them and to themselves over the trajectory of 30 more years struggling with it would be unconscionable. It's in first Corinthians chapter 1132:55 when Jesus when Paul says to that church, he says, this is why some of you have died because you haven't dealt with the sin in your life. That's why. So I'm not promoting this idea33:07 that you should just let your appetites control you so that eventually God kills you and then you go to heaven. Don't be stupid. God has plenty for you to do. He wants to prosper you and bless you. He wants your life to33:19 go well. He does. He wants your life to be a reflection of his goodness and his beauty and his power at work in people who believe. But when you're tempted,33:32 don't think about the moment, think about the process that got you here, where it's gonna lead you. It will kill you. It will take from you. It will rob you. The thief comes to steal, kill, and destroy. Jesus has come33:43 that you might have life and life to the full. Point number 2, when tempted, get truth about God. Get truth about God. Jesus said, you shall know the truth and the truth shall what? Set33:55 you free. Truth sets us free. If you think that God did this, you're gonna blame God, and then you won't turn to the God who can change it. Don't you understand this is the devil trying to come34:07 between you and God so that you look at everybody else. You look at the solutions of man. You look to the solutions of the pharmaceutical industry. You look to the solutions of secular therapist or the secular34:16 psychologist, and you're not turned to the father, the only 1 with the resources to change things inside of you and around you. So get truth. Here's how James writes this in verse 16.34:28 Do not be what? Deceived. If you think God's out to get you, friend, you're deceived. If you think God made you like that, you're deceived. Mm-mm. You've34:40 inherited a sinful nature that manifests itself in particular appetites that the enemy knows and has assigned certain lures to to draw you away34:52 from God. Okay. So don't be deceived, he says, my beloved brothers. Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down. I love the word35:04 coming down because the English doesn't do it justice, the Greek does it justice. The Greek, the original text of the bible, this passage is in the present perfect, which means every good gift and every perfect gift35:14 keeps coming down from the father of life. How many know that God is good all the time? How many know that he's being good to you right now? How many know that he's gonna be good to you35:26 tomorrow? He was good to you yesterday. He's always gonna put some good things in your life. The enemy wants you to focus on all the bad things. God wants you to look up and see the good things that he's poured into your35:36 life. How many can give God praise today? Because you got air in your lungs, because you got clothes on your back, because you got a car waiting for you, because you got some place to lay down tonight. God has been good35:46 to you. The sun rises, the rain falls, the leaves beautify, and then they fall, and then winter comes, but it doesn't last. God is good.35:59 This is what James he switches right from all the terrible things that temptation can do to all the positive things that God wants to do and is doing. Because the foundational lie in every36:11 temptation, write this down, is that God is not good to me. Before you sin, you've already believed that in some small way.36:24 If you steal, it's because you think that God is just holding out on you. He's not giving you what you deserve. If you lust, it's because you think that God has,36:36 you know, withheld what you desperately need, and so you gotta go get it in in, you know, in moral or in questionable ways. If you overeat, it's because, you know, you think that the Lord has not given you enough36:47 pleasure in life, so that becomes like a coping mechanism to bring more pleasure in life because you deserve. The foundational lie of every temptation begins with you and I36:59 questioning the goodness of God. Now here's how James I'm sorry. Here's how this is illustrated in the book of Genesis. In Genesis chapter 3, when sin comes in, this the line of37:10 the the devil. This is the line. What does he say in Genesis 3 4? You're not gonna die. Here's what he says. Look at the next line. For god knows that when you eat of it,37:22 your eyes will be opened and you will be like God knowing good and evil. Hear the line underneath the phrase. God is holding out on you.37:35 And if he really loves you, he would give it to you. Now the foundational lie also is that he promises that they will be like God. Just back up to Genesis chapter 137:47 when it says, let us make man in our image and the next word.37:59 Amen. Somebody's read their bible. Likeness. Hello? They already were like God. They38:10 already were made like God. And the enemy made them believe they weren't. This is the heart of38:22 temptation. You need to get that thing that you shouldn't get because it will make you who you are. It will make you somebody. It make you feel important. It'll make you feel sexy. It'll make you feel wise. It'll make38:33 you feel smart. It'll make you feel important. And this is the foundation of life. That doesn't come from the things that this world gives you. Smarts doesn't come from the things this world gives you. That doesn't38:42 blessing doesn't come from the things that this world gives you. Blessing comes from God. Goodness comes from God. The good things that God wants to give you will far outweigh any lie the devil wants to sell you. Amen.38:53 Amen. But the ultimate lie is that God's holding out on you. I've got 2 boxer dogs. Boxer dogs. Some of you remember me from 10 years ago. IShow more
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