May 27, 2001

June 15, 2003

Service Theme – "Our God is Faithful"

Galatians 5:16-26

Temptation and Faithfulness

Introduction

Illustration – A group of friends went deer hunting and paired off in twos for the day. That night one of the hunters returned alone, staggering under an eight-point buck. "Where’s Harry?" he was asked. "Harry had a stroke of some kind. He’s a couple of miles back up the trail." "You left Harry laying there, and carried the deer back?" "Well," said the hunter, "I figured no one was going to steal Harry" (as cited on SermonCentral.com).
Faithfulness is something we all struggle with every day. There are so many distractions, so many opportunities pulling us all different directions that too often we spin off in the wrong direction and forget the commitments we’ve already made. So today we’re going to look at James 1:13-15 to see what this cycle of sin is and how we are tempted to counterfeit faithfulness.

Scripture Passage

(NEW SLIDE) James 1:13-15 (NIV) - When tempted, no one should say, "God is tempting me." For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does he tempt anyone; 14 but each one is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. 15 Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death.

(NEW SLIDE) Preoccupation/Enticement (verse 14) – the only stage where we can stop ourselves from sinning. We are tempted to be faithful to our own passions and desires instead of being faithful to God’s passions and desires. We begin to desire something that is not what God would want for us. At that point we have two choices: to stop the desire in its tracks, or to begin to obsess on it. Men can be tempted to desire pornography or other women, or to desire the latest and greatest tool or truck, or to desire money above all else. Sex is good within the context of marriage, but we’re tempted to be faithful to our illicit desires rather than God’s plan for marriage. The same goes for our desires for stuff. Women are tempted to desire illicit relationships through romance novels or through ill-advised friendships or even through shopping. Anything to fill the need for love that isn’t being filled in a godly way. Men and women are tempted in these ways just about every day, but we have to stop the temptation before it becomes an obsession and we’re hooked.

(NEW SLIDE) Ritualization/Conception (verse 15) – we set the sin process in motion. We all know things that we do to justify our sin. We cruise down to the video store "to see what they have" knowing full well that we’ll grab that pornographic or romance video or one that has just enough in it to tantalize us. We know exactly what we’re doing when we head down to the dealership or the tool shop "just to look around," or when we go to the book store or library to see what they have knowing we’ll grab that Harlequin or other sensual romance novel. Those are some of the rituals we indulge in that take us directly to the throne of hell. And all because we’ve desired to be faithful to our own desires instead of God’s desires.

(NEW SLIDE) Acting Out/Birth (verse 15) – what disgusts us is what we wind up doing. We get home with our new toy or our new video or our new book, and indulge away. We’ve stepped outside the boundaries of God’s plan. We’ve sinned.

(NEW SLIDE) Shame/Death (verse 15) – we have to face the pain of severing our relationship with God. There are only two ways of dealing with our 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. Medicating ourselves only locks us into that vicious cycle of sin that, by ourselves, we are helpless to get out of.

True Spiritual Faithfulness

What is our alternative? What does true spiritual faithfulness look like? How do we tell the difference between what’s true and what’s counterfeit? Let’s look at some Scripture.

(NEW SLIDE) Psalm 89:8 says O Lord God Almighty! Where is there anyone as mighty as you, Lord? Faithfulness is your very character. True spiritual faithfulness is a character trait of God.

(NEW SLIDE) Psalm 40:11 says Lord, don’t hold back your tender mercies from me. My only hope is in your unfailing love and faithfulness. True spiritual faithfulness gives us hope.

Exodus 34:6 says He passed in front of Moses and said, "I am the Lord, I am the Lord, the merciful and gracious God. I am slow to anger and rich in unfailing love and faithfulness. God’s faithfulness, the very rock of true spiritual faithfulness, never fails.

(NEW SLIDE) Proverbs 16:6 says Unfailing love and faithfulness cover sin; evil is avoided by fear of the Lord. True spiritual faithfulness enables us to be forgiven by God.

John 1:17 says For the law was given through Moses; God’s unfailing love and faithfulness came through Jesus Christ. True spiritual faithfulness comes from God through Jesus Christ.

(NEW SLIDE) 2 Thessalonians 1:4 says We proudly tell God’s other churches about your endurance and faithfulness in all the persecutions and hardships you are suffering. True spiritual faithfulness does not depend on circumstances.

Here are some definitions of what true spiritual goodness is.

(NEW SLIDE) New Bible Dictionary (Logos): "the unfaithfulness of man does not nullify the faithfulness of God"; "Through faithfulness in times of trial men become dokimoi, ‘approved’, in God’s sight"; "Faithfulness in the use of riches brings spiritual reward (Lk. 16:11); for true wealth and true riches are the spiritual blessings which God gives, rather than his material blessings (Lk. 12:33; 16:11)."

(NEW SLIDE) Bible Knowledge Commentary (Logos): "Faithfulness (pistis) is the quality which renders a person trustworthy or reliable, like the faithful servant in Luke 16:10-12."

Matthew Henry (Logos): "He never rewards but upon just reason, and he ever rewards in proportion to the diligence and faithfulness of his servants."

(NEW SLIDE) Theological Dictionary of the NT (Logos): "Insofar as faith is faithfulness, it is faithfulness to God’s saving act in Christ, to the one name in which is salvation (Acts 4:12). The obedience of faith is obedience to the way of salvation in Christ, which includes, of course, turning aside from sin. In every dimension it means a radical reorientation to God that governs all life."

(NEW SLIDE) Greek English Lexicon of the NT based on Semitic Domains (Logos): "the state of being someone in whom complete confidence can be placed - ‘trustworthiness, dependability, faithfulness.’"

(NEW SLIDE) The bottom line is that true spiritual faithfulness is the fruit of a trusting and committed relationship with God. God is always faithful, but faithfulness to Him and His purposes requires a choice on our part. We are saved by faith, but our salvation is demonstrated only by how much we trust and obey Him. If we are truly faithful, God can trust us and depend on us to do His will even when our own will is screaming for attention. True spiritual faithfulness is the fruit of obedience to God. So we know how we’re tempted, and we know what true spiritual faithfulness looks like, but how do we defeat temptation and build true spiritual faithfulness into our hearts and lives?

Help and Hope

God has given us the power of the Holy Spirit to defeat sin in our lives and build His fruit into our hearts and lives. We can start defeating sin the second we begin to be tempted, and the enticement stage is the only place we can defeat sin. Here is what we must do.

(NEW SLIDE) First, we’ve got to pray a prayer thanking Jesus for the victory He is giving us, and continue to spend quality time in prayer each and every day. 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 through prayer and relationship with Him. 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." Claim the victory in prayer and continue in prayer.

(NEW SLIDE) Second, we’ve got to focus our minds on what we should focus on, not what we shouldn’t by memorizing Scripture. The more we focus on not thinking about temptation, the more we’ll think about it. We have to focus on thinking about God’s Word. The Holy Spirit will bring those verses we’ve memorized to mind when we need them the most. Scripture memory is hard work, but we can do it if we work hard at it. You can, too. So what Scripture do we use to fight the temptation to indulge in counterfeit faithfulness? (NEW SLIDE) How about Proverbs 16:6 from the New Living? Unfailing love and faithfulness cover sin; evil is avoided by fear of the Lord. We’ve got to memorize Scripture, using the same tool Jesus used to defeat Satan when He was tempted in the wilderness.

(NEW SLIDE) Third, we’ve got to have 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 have to ask ourselves this question and answer truthfully. 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? We can’t resist temptation without accountability. Prayer is great, and memorizing Scripture is great. But we won’t consistently use them in our walk with God and we won’t consistently walk closely with God without accountability. It just won’t happen!

David Simmons writes, In the movie, A Few Good Men, a sergeant and a private stand on trial for killing a fellow marine. Their lawyer, played by Tom Cruise, attempts to demonstrate that the murder was actually the result of an order that the two marines had received from a higher-up. The order to help train the fellow marine ended up causing the death of that marine. When Tom Cruise begins to investigate, the prosecuting attorney quickly tries to strike a plea bargain, offering to reduce the sentence from 20 years down to six months. Tom Cruise goes to tell his clients the good news, that in six months they would be home free. Harold, the marine sergeant, refuses the plea bargain and chooses instead to stand on trial. Tom Cruise is mortified. If the case went to trial, they would loose and likely spend a lifetime behind bars. In a powerful point in the movie, Tom Cruise looks Harold in the eye and asks him why he would be so stupid as to refuse a plea bargain of six months. Harold responds, "Unit, Core, God, Country." Tom Cruise looks at him and says, "What?" He repeats, "Unit, Core, God, Country." Harold explains that this is their code. The center of marine values is "Unit, Core, God, Country." Harold had followed the code, and if following the code meant that he would spend the rest of his life in a military prison, then so be it." So Tom Cruise tells him, "If you want to go to jail for the rest of your life, you go right ahead." I’m wondering if we aren’t sometimes like Tom Cruise in that movie. Instead of seeing our mission as a driving force behind all we do, we look at it as a nice slogan on a piece of paper. I find evidence of this when I see people putting their personal agendas ahead of our mission as a church. When we focus more on what the church can do for us rather than what we can do for the mission of the church, then our mission becomes irrelevant (as cited on SermonCentral.com).

We’ve got to learn to allow the Holy Spirit to give us true spiritual goodness so that we can defeat the cycle of sin in our lives that leads us to counterfeit faithfulness.

Conclusion

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.
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 have a personal relationship with Jesus Christ and you want to begin to appropriate His power to break the cycle of counterfeit goodness or any other sin in your heart and life, pray right now and repeat after me. "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. Amen." If you prayed that prayer, I challenge you to do two things. First, start working on memorizing 2 Peter 1:5-8 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 faithfulness 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 you simply won’t do it!
Now of you’re serious about the commitment you’ve made to Christ to break the cycles of sin in your life, I’d like you to take the communication card and circle the "F".

Hosted by www.Geocities.ws