May 11, 2003

Service Theme – "Our God is Joy"

Galatians 5:16-26

Temptation and Joy

  1. Introduction
    1. Illustration – Max Lucado tells this story. "I have everything I need for joy!" Robert Reed said. His hands are twisted and his feet are useless. He can’t bathe himself. He can’t feed himself. He can’t brush his teeth, comb his hair, or put on his underwear. Strips of Velcro hold his shirts together. His speech drags like a worn out audiocassette. Robert has cerebral palsy. The disease keeps him from driving a car, riding a bike, and going for a walk. But it didn’t keep him from graduating from high school or attending Abilene Christian University, from which he graduated with a degree in Latin. Having cerebral palsy didn’t keep him from teaching at St. Louis Junior College or from venturing overseas on five mission trips. And Robert’s disease didn’t prevent him from becoming a missionary in Portugal. He moved to Lisbon, alone, in 1972. There he rented a hotel room and began studying Portuguese. He found a restaurant owner who would feed him after the rush hour and a tutor who would instruct him in the language. Then he stationed himself daily in a park, where he distributed brochures about Christ. Within six years he led seventy people to the Lord, one of whom became his wife, Rosa. I heard Robert speak recently. I watched other men carry him in his wheelchair onto the platform. I watched them lay a Bible in his lap. I watched his stiff fingers force open the pages. And I watched people in the audience wipe away tears of admiration from their faces. Robert could have asked for sympathy or pity, but he did just the opposite. He held his bent hand up in the air and boasted, "I have everything I need for joy." His shirts are held together by Velcro, but his life is held together by joy. Why do we find it so hard to experience and express joy in our hearts and lives? I believe that for me, I often totally misunderstand what true spiritual joy is.
    2. That’s why we’re continuing our series on temptation and the fruit of the Spirit, using the cycle of sin outlined in this James passage by Bill Perkins to see how we can avoid seeking counterfeit fruit. Because we don’t understand what true spiritual joy is, and we need to if we're going to defeat the power of sin in our lives. So let’s first read Galatians 5:16-26 and see the contrast between counterfeit fruit and true spiritual fruit.
  1. Scripture Passage
    1. Galatians 5:16-26 (from the New Living) - So I advise you to live according to your new life in the Holy Spirit. Then you won't be doing what your sinful nature craves. [17] The old sinful nature loves to do evil, which is just opposite from what the Holy Spirit wants. And the Spirit gives us desires that are opposite from what the sinful nature desires. These two forces are constantly fighting each other, and your choices are never free from this conflict. [18] But when you are directed by the Holy Spirit, you are no longer subject to the law. NEW SLIDE [19] When you follow the desires of your sinful nature, your lives will produce these evil results: sexual immorality, impure thoughts, eagerness for lustful pleasure, [20] idolatry, participation in demonic activities, hostility, quarreling, jealousy, outbursts of anger, selfish ambition, divisions, the feeling that everyone is wrong except those in your own little group, [21] envy, drunkenness, wild parties, and other kinds of sin. Let me tell you again, as I have before, that anyone living that sort of life will not inherit the Kingdom of God. NEW SLIDE [22] But when the Holy Spirit controls our lives, he will produce this kind of fruit in us: love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, [23] gentleness, and self-control. Here there is no conflict with the law. [24] Those who belong to Christ Jesus have nailed the passions and desires of their sinful nature to his cross and crucified them there. [25] If we are living now by the Holy Spirit, let us follow the Holy Spirit's leading in every part of our lives. [26] Let us not become conceited, or irritate one another, or be jealous of one another.
    2. What is real, true spiritual joy? What does that look like? How can we describe it? Is it pure emotionalism, or is there something more to it? I was doing a word study on joy and its Greek root and found some interesting passages.
    1. Let me share some definitions of what true spiritual joy is. One source referred to it in this manner: (NEW SLIDE) "my heart is dancing" (Greek-English Lexicon based on Semantic Languages – Logos Scholar Library). The New Bible Dictionary (Logos) said, "It is a quality, and not simply an emotion, grounded upon God Himself and indeed derived from Him, which characterizes the Christian’s life on earth, and also anticipates…the joy of being with Christ forever in the kingdom of heaven." (NEW SLIDE) The Bible Knowledge Commentary (Logos) says joy is "deep and abiding inner rejoicing," and that it "does not depend on circumstance because it rests in God’s sovereign control of all things." The Theological Dictionary of the New Testament (Logos) says, "In practice, joy is the possibility of prayer, which brings its fulfillment." My favorite is from Matthew Henry (Logos), who says that joy is "a constant delight in God."
    2. (NEW SLIDE) The bottom line is that true spiritual joy is not me-dependent, it is God-dependent. It comes from following and serving and loving God through Jesus Christ, and the Holy Spirit makes it real in our hearts as we follow Him. If that’s the case, how do we fight counterfeit joy? We’ve got to recognize how we are tempted to seek after it.
  1. The Cycle of Sin
    1. (NEW SLIDE) Preoccupation/Enticement – this is the first step in the cycle of sin. There are times when we are in situations that we should run from with all we’ve got – not because those situations are necessarily evil, but because they will lead us to become preoccupied with doing evil. We find ourselves unhappy with life, and fail to realize that happiness depends on circumstances while joy depends on relationship with God. So we see or hear something that we believe will bring us great joy. Maybe it’s a racy ad. Maybe it’s the latest and greatest car or truck. Maybe it’s one of those jet sleds that zoom you across the water and get your adrenaline pumping. Maybe it’s a new house. Maybe it’s a new spouse. Maybe it’s drugs or alcohol. We see or hear about something we believe will bring us joy and begin to dwell on it. The preoccupation becomes an obsession. If we don’t stop it now, we will sin.
    2. (NEW SLIDE) Ritualization/Conception – If we’ve allowed the possibility of filling our need for joy through sin to take root, the next action will be ritualizing, which is where the actual sin is conceived. As we learned last week, we set ourselves up with rituals which may not actually be sin, but which will lead to sin. Rituals are our means of justifying sin, even if we don’t realize they are. Rituals conceive sin in our heart because they bring it to life within us. We find ourselves checking out online loan companies to see if we can finance the source of our counterfeit joy. Or we apply for yet another credit card whose application just happened to appear in our mailbox at the right time. Or we begin to spend time we people of the opposite sex we’re not married to just "be sociable." Or we drive by where we know drugs or alcohol is sold just to see what those places look like. We even begin to find reasons to justify reducing our giving to God so we’ll have more money to medicate our need for joy with. Once we’ve started with those rituals, we’re dead meat. Whether or not we’ll admit it, we’ve already sinned in our hearts by acting on those temptations for false joy. All that’s left is acting out.
    3. (NEW SLIDE) Acting Out/Birth – this stage is where we blatantly sin. As we learned last week, when we act out, we’re trying desperately to medicate a hurting in our hearts that we won’t allow God to heal. Why? Sin is so much more alluring. Satan adds a supernatural charm to sin to give it a luster we’re greedy for. But no matter how it looks, sin kills.
    4. (NEW SLIDE) Shame/Death – this is where we realize that we have sinned, that we’ve just killed something good spiritually inside of us. So we have to face the pain of shame. The shame of betraying those we love. The shame of finding ourselves thousands of dollars in debt with no way to pay it and no real joy from what we bought. There are only two ways of dealing with shame: bringing it before the cross of Jesus by confessing our sin and asking for forgiveness and turning our backs on that sin; or to medicate the pain of the sin even further by sinning again. Our lives become a vicious cycle of sin that we feel helpless to get out of. And by ourselves we are helpless to get out of it. But there is help and hope in the power of the Holy Spirit.
  1. Help and Hope
    1. God has graciously given us an out to defeat sin in our lives. It’s called the power of the Holy Spirit. We can start defeating it the second we begin to be tempted, and that’s good because the enticement stage is the only place we can defeat sin. Here is what we must do.
    2. (NEW SLIDE) First, we must pray a prayer thanking Jesus for the victory He is giving us. Doesn’t that sound a little bit backwards though? Shouldn’t we actually be winning before we pray that? There is a simple biblical truth at work here: Jesus died and rose again to break the power of sin and Satan over our lives. Let me say it again: Jesus died and rose again to break the power of sin and Satan over our lives. Jesus already won the victory. All we have to do is appropriate its power. We begin by praying a prayer like this, as Bill Perkins suggests: "Thank you, Lord, for saving me from this sin that I’ve tried to medicate my pain with (and list it specifically). Right now I’m looking to Jesus and trusting Him to live His life through me. I’m now trusting Him to use His Word to purify my mind."
    3. (NEW SLIDE) And even as we’re praying that prayer, we’ve got to focus our minds on what we should focus on, not what we shouldn’t. The more we focus on not thinking about temptation, the more we’ll think about it. So we have to focus on thinking about God’s Word. A powerful key once again to defeating sin is memorizing Scripture so that the Holy Spirit can bring it right to mind when we need it the most. I know that some of you are thinking what I used to think: "I can’t memorize Scripture! You’ve got to be kidding!" You know what? Scripture memory is hard work, but I’ve found I can do it if I work hard at it. You can, too. So what Scripture do we use to fight the temptation to indulge in counterfeit joy? (NEW SLIDE) How about Romans 12:1-2 from the New Living? And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will accept. When you think of what he has done for you, is this too much to ask? [2] Don't copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will know what God wants you to do, and you will know how good and pleasing and perfect his will really is. The behavior and customs of this world involve chasing after counterfeit joy. Memorizing this passage will help you to overcome the temptation to indulge in counterfeit joy. And you will give the Spirit a powerful tool to build true spiritual joy into your heart and life. We’ve got to pray, thanking Jesus for the victory He died to give us. We’ve got to memorize Scripture, giving us the very tool Jesus used to defeat Satan when He was tempted in the wilderness. But there’s one more thing.
    4. (NEW SLIDE) Accountability. When you have to look other Christians in the eye and tell them the truth, it really helps keep you from giving in to temptation. We talked about this last week, but we need to bring it up again. Is there anyone in your life who you have given permission to ask you about how you spend your time and your money, and about how your relationships are going? Accountability, when combined with prayer and memorizing Scripture, is a powerful tool in God’s hands to help you defeat the temptation to medicate your pain with counterfeit joy. It helps keep our hearts and lives centered and focused on God as the true source of our joy. We need accountability if we’re going to break the sin cycle in our hearts and lives.
    5. With God’s help, we can break that cycle of sin. We can leave counterfeit joy behind. We can learn to celebrate each day with God’s joy. We can learn to delight in God no matter what the circumstances. That’s good news!
  1. Conclusion
    1. Please bow your heads and close your eyes. Where are you at in the cycle of sin? Have you been effectively defeating it at the first stage, not allowing yourself to become preoccupied with temptation, praying and focusing on God’s Word in your heart and making yourself accountable to fellow Christians? Or has the sin cycle been getting the best of you? If you are struggling with sin, remember what 1 John 1:9 says: If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness. Right now we’re going spend a few minutes checking our own hearts and allowing God the Holy Spirit to show us any areas where we’re struggling with sin.
    2. What has God been saying to your heart? If you want to begin the process of defeating the cycle of sin in your heart and life, now’s the time to start. First, you must have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, otherwise the Holy Spirit has no power in your heart. If you don’t have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and you want to start one right now, pray right now and repeat after me: "Lord Jesus, I know that I am a sinner and need Your forgiveness. I believe that You died for my sins. I want to turn from my sins. I now invite You to come into my heart and life. I want to trust and follow You as Lord and Savior. Amen." If you prayed that prayer, we welcome you into the Kingdom of God. And be sure to tell somebody about it before you leave today. Now, with heads still bowed and eyes still closed, if you have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and you want to begin to appropriate His power to break the cycle of counterfeit joy or any other sin in your heart and life, pray right now and repeat after me. "Thank you, Lord, for saving me from that. Right now I’m looking to Jesus and trusting Him to live His life through me. I’m now trusting Him to use His Word to purify my mind. Amen." If you prayed that prayer, I challenge you to do two things. First, start working on memorizing Romans 12:1-2 today, not tomorrow, not sometime this week, but today. Second, find someone who will lovingly but not permissively hold you accountable, and find them today. Confess your counterfeit joy and the rituals you practice. Then meet with them weekly if at all possible, confess to each other, strengthen and encourage each other. But get started today, or sin will win! Let’s all pray together.
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