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| JAMES LESSON #29 �desire� � (to be immoral, for pornography, to overeat, to be angry and blow up, to release rage on someone else, to be jealous, to live in depression, to under eat, to be a workaholic, to drink in excess, to live on pills, to steal, to swear, to get revenge, to lie, to cheat, and the list goes on) However strong the desire is you are better off going to the extreme that you need to go to stop it, than to yield to the desire and fall into sin that will lead to death. What if you fall into sin? What do you do then? What if the desire is so strong that you just dive in full throttle �only to discover that the fulfillment of that desire brings momentary pleasure and longtime disaster. Remember the peanut butter story? Well �go there first.� Confess whatever you�ve done (God already knows � He watched you and listened to you while it happened) �Ask Him to forgive you and cleanse you, and TURN and go a different direction. There�s one problem with sin. Today�s mindset is that you can sin, live like you want (it�s always better to ask forgiveness later..right?) � and ask for forgiveness and everything will be ok. Wrong. It doesn�t work that way. When you confess your sins, yes, God will forgive you and cleanse you but that doesn�t remove the consequence: that, being �death. GET THIS: Sin ALWAYS gives birth to death. Look at Psalm 38. Read the entire chapter. I want to list the consequences of sin as David gives them: vs 3: there is no soundness in my flesh -there is no health in my bones vs 4 there is a heavy weight on me vs 5 my wounds grow foul and fester vs 6 I am bent over and greatly bowed down � I go mourning all day long (sounds like pretty heavy depression to me) vs7-8 I am badly crushed and groan vs 10 my heart throbs- my strength fails me � and there is no light in my eyes vs 11 my friends have ditched me and so has my family vs 12 my enemies are plotting against me vs 13 I do not hear � I am without words (no excuses) vs 14 I have no arguments vs15 �people are waiting for me to slip up so they can take me out vs16 I am ready to fall � my sorrow is ever before me vs17 many are those who hate me wrongfully vs18 I am full of anxiety vs19-22 David pleads for help. All this because He bit into desire : had a moment of pleasure that is now eating him alive. Listen carefully. THAT is how it works. In verse 16 there is a turn around: He is �acknowledging sin.� -no excuses. He is OWNING what he�s done. Many times that is the LAST thing we do. Sin eats us alive and we spend a lot of energy emotionally and spiritually a) trying to hide b) trying to save face c) blaming SOMEONE ELSE d) coming up with excuses for why we did what we did e) and/or rationalizing it and refusing to see it as sin � to only go deeper in bondage. Get the picture here: YOUR JOURNEY IS WHAT YOU CHOOSE. If the above list is what you want your journey to be, bite into desire: fulfill it � don�t kill it. I promise you, the list above is where it will take you. David was the �friend of God.� -�beloved of God� � chosen to someday rule forever - AND HE BLEW IT: His response to �blowing it� could have ruined the rest of his life. One of the greatest lies that Satan will shove in front of you is, �You�ve blown it so bad that, yes, God can forgive you, but He�ll never use you for anything � you�ve made a waste of yourself and there�s no turn around possible.� WRONG. THERE IS ALWAYS A POSSIBILITY FOR A TURN AROUND. David was just �sick� over what He�d done. Not because somebody �exposed� him � but because He knew that God knew � and He knew that He�d greatly grieved the heart of God. David loved God. God deeply loved David. This was about a �joint effort� opportunity. David was no fool. He knew the way out and was willing to walk it rather than stay in bondage and drive his life deeper into sin. David is literally screaming in this Psalm, �Don�t yield to your desires. It is NEVER what you imagine it to be ahead of time. It�s a trap! Don�t go there!� Temptation brings sin and sin brings death. On one side of sin is pleasure for a season � but remember � it�s FOR A SEASON. The pleasure brings pain, disappointment, hurt and despair. THERE IS A HARVEST TO SIN. How do I overcome? We�re going to look at that in depth in a moment, but I�d like to share with you the writings of and old Franciscan that I think really zero�s in on the answer to �arriving� spiritually: If you feel the call of the spirit, then be holy with all your soul, with all your heart, and with all your strength. If, however, because of human weakness, you cannot be holy, then be perfect with all your soul, with all your heart, and with all your strength. But � if you cannot be perfect because of the vanity of your life, then be good with all your soul, with all your heart, and with all your strength. Yet, if you cannot be good because of the trickery of the Evil One, then be wise with all your soul, with all your heart and with all your strength. If, in the end, you can neither be holy, nor perfect, nor good, nor wise because of the weight of your sins, then carry this weight before God and surrender your life to his divine mercy. If you do this, without bitterness, with all humility and with a joyous spirit due to the tenderness of a God who loves the sinful and the ungrateful, then you will begin to feel what it is to be wise, you will learn what it is to be good, you will slowly aspire to be perfect, and finally You will long to be holy�. Why? Because you will have encountered the embrace, of grace. Something you don�t deserve: Something that gives you permission to come home and start over again�WITH FULL SUPPORT, ENCOURAGEMENT, and LOVE. Where do you fit in this picture? You work as if everything depends on God and pray as if everything depends on YOU. You say, I�m a failure in prayer. WRONG. The only way to fail in prayer is to not show up. Get that. Jesus needs nothing but our humility and confidence to work miracles in us. As Manning suggests, Jesus found the humility of the Canannite woman so irresistible that he could not refuse what she asked. �Even the dogs eat the scraps that fall from the master�s table,� she said. After she humbled herself in this way, Jesus exalted her: �Woman, you have great trust! Your request is granted� (Matthew 14:28) Deeply moved by the humble confidence of the thief on the cross � �Lord, remember me when you come into your Kingdom� (Luke 23:42) � Jesus canceled the man�s lifetime of sin and basically made him a saint. No million years in purgatory, no laps in the lake of fire, -wrong: �Today you will be with me in Paradise.� (Luke 23:43) It was instant. Peter had messed over Jesus THREE times. With that memory fresh in his head � permanently engraved- he wrote from his heart. �Wrap yourselves in humility and be servants of each other, WHY? Because God refuses the proud and will always favor the humble� (I Peter 5:5-6) Proud? How does �proud� fit in this �Desire� picture. Well, you answer the question: If you�re following �your� desires rather than God�s �Who�s in the �control� seat in your life? You are. If you choose to �continue� in sin, even after the Spirit of God has convicted your heart � what are you saying to the �Spirit of God?� I know better than you � I�m doing it my way. Sounds pretty arrogant to me - Confronting sin in our lives is really a �joint effort� experience. It begins with the prompting of God�s Spirit. Our response is either rejection or an initial �trust.� We�re really going to take a deep look at exactly what it means to �trust� later � but for now I want to remind you that growing in �trust� is a process: and that as trust happens confidence unfolds. Based on the solid undeniable evidence of God�s unbelievable faithfulness, a certainty in God�s trustworthiness is activated with no effort on our part. When a farmer throws some grain into soil, waters it and then takes a break, the earth, all by itself automatically �brings forth fruit.� The growth of trust into confidence is likewise �of itself.� Look at James 1:18-21 He talks about us in verse 18 as being children of God � the �firstfruits� of His creatures. In verse 21 He says, �Therefore putting aside all filthiness and all that remains of wickedness (get rid of it � that�s what you�ve been brought out of) �in humility, receive what? -the WORD implanted in you. The word �souls� in the Greek = pseuche: and it means your mind, your will, your emotions, your intellect- it�s the internal part of you. James is saying: You want to keep your mind in tact? You want to keep your emotions in tact? You want to keep your intellect in tact? You want to keep your inner man in tact? -then let the word �conceive�(make you pregnant with) in you �righteousness� instead of letting �desire� conceive (make you pregnant with) in you sin that brings forth death. Get the Word inside you: so that the �inside of you� get�s �put back together- renewed- made strong again.� When James is talking about the saving of your souls here he is not talking about heaven and hell. He�s talking about putting the pieces of who you are back together. Time to look at how temptation and desire work together. This illustration came from Kay. Look at James 1:13-14 It says �when we�re tempted we�re carried away by and enticed by our own lust.� The word �entice� in the Greek is deleazo and it means : to lure a fish from behind a rock. Ok let�s look at it: Who is the prince of this world? Satan. What is he out to do? Destroy you. Imagine yourself in the mountains, surrounded by beauty, sitting at the edge of a beautiful mountain lake that mirrors the reflection of the snow cap peaks that surround you. Imagine yourself to be a fish in that lake. The waters are absolutely pristine � it�s your �world.� In your new �world� there are all sorts of temptations. Standing on the edge of the lake is a fisherman. His desire? To kill you. This fisherman, is Satan. Satan is NOT in the water right? He�s on the edge, preparing to fish. He has all sorts of hooks. Every color, every shape, some that wiggle, some that smell: Question: What�s going to cause you, the fish, to bite? To �sin?� Is it the fisherman? Is it the water you�re swimming in? Nope. They only provide the �atmosphere� for sin to take place. Back to James 1:14 �each one is tempted when he is carried away and enticed by what? HIS OWN DESIRE. If you�re a fisherman you already know that fish tend to �hide behind rocks.� When they�re hidden behind a rock, they�re kept safe. However, this fisherman comes along and dangles a fully loaded well scented hook that he KNOWS this particular fish can virtually NOT resist and lowers it into the water. The fish bites. He bites deep. Did the worm cause him to sin? Did the fisherman (Satan) cause him to sin? Did the world in which he lived cause him to sin? No..no ..and more no. He was drawn away by his own lusts. Bigger question: From WHERE was he drawn away? THE ROCK. Get this: All sin comes from not believing God � because you choose to walk by your own desires rather than to believe God. If you don�t �kill� desire, you�ll �fulfill� desire and fall into sin. When sin happens, it brings death. The fisherman ate the fish for supper ok? Get it. You need to fear God �not accuse Him of tempting you or pulling you into circumstances you have gotten yourself in to. He doesn�t do that. What you do in response to desire is your choice. Don�t blame Satan. Don�t blame your environment. Don�t blame your family or your spouse. Jesus prayed that the Father would not take them out of the world, but that He would leave them in the world and protect them from evil. Then He prayed, �Father sanctify them with truth � Thy WORD is truth. This �WORD� is what will put the pieces back together inside you �especially after you blow it. Remember that when a person doesn�t know anything about aids and has sex with a partner who does have aids, his lack of understanding does not remove him from suffering the consequences of his actions. Not knowing God�s Word will not remove you from the consequences of your choices � BUT, KNOWING the Word of God will guard you from falling into them if you run according to what it says. Loving you- Robin �copyright 2001 Jim and Robin Hibschman |
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