When Being Tempted

Well. Good morning. Thank you for everyone that joined us this Labor Day weekend here in the room. And I want to give a special welcome to those that are joining us online and later on demand. I have a feeling it’s going to be larger than usual, but that’s great. Thank you so much for connecting with us. And if this is your first time here visiting Shepherd’s Gate today, let me, say you are so welcome here. We’re so glad that you’re here. we hope that you find our community friendly and open. And I hope that you come back again and again. to get into all that Shepherd has to offer it. My name is Jim Jensen. People around here call me JJ, and I’m the executive director for ministry at Shepherd’s Gate. People sometimes ask me what that means, so, I’ll say it this way.

Pastor Tim and I just recently read a book called Rocket Fuel. And in that book, there are two kinds of leaders. One is the visionary and one is the integrator. And the visionary, talks about where we’re going and what we’re going to be doing. And that is definitely pastor ten. And then the integrator talks about how we’re going to get there, the logistics, the strategies that will make all of that work. And that’s definitely me. So I’m the integrator here at Shepherd’s Gate, which is why I’m so excited about everything that we’re doing here. So excited that you’re here today. And I am honored, to deliver the message today at someone. I told someone I’m the third string because, Pastor Tim and Pastor Ben are on vacation. They said, no, you’re the pinch hitter.

And I like that so much better. So I would say on the pinch hitter today, but, we’ve been in a series called Pray Like Jesus. And it’s interesting. Jesus prayed while he was here on earth. He prayed. And we can learn from his prayers. And that’s what we’ve been doing in this series. We started out, when when you’re in need, how do you pray or when you don’t even know how? And we talked about the Lord’s Prayer today. We’re, finishing on when you’re tempted, how to pray when you’re tempted. Now, temptation. That’s an interesting subject. I think a lot of us think about the angel on one shoulder and the, the devil on the other shoulder, you know, and it’s like you can eat the cookie. You’re like, no, you shouldn’t eat the cookie, but you should eat it.

And, you know, maybe make light of it a little bit, you know, temptation. What is that? But temptation has ruined a lot of lives. Temptation is brought down a lot of people. In fact, just last week, I saw in my newsfeed that the pastor of a large church in Texas and his executive director were both fired in the same month for succumbing to temptations of various kinds. And, you know, I think when it’s religious figures, it makes the news or whatever, but we’re all tempted in some way. It can be very dangerous. It can be very, you know, it can it can ruin your life. We’ve all suffered temptation. I’m not going to ask you what what temptations you you are experiencing, but, maybe just shout out, what are some temptations that occur?

as human beings, what are some of the temptations we face? Just shout them out. Gambling, booze. So good ones try drugs, overspending money. Both got that one at the same time. Yeah. Porn. What was this over here? what was lost? Oh, you lost? Yeah. You know those sexual temptations? Social media. Yeah. Even social media can be a temptation. Infidelity? Yes. Yeah. You know, the more you talk about it, the more serious it can get. I don’t I’m not going to ask you to shout out the various temptations that you’ve faced in your life. but, you know, some of these categories are very real lying, cheating and business. some people, you’ve mentioned addictions and, even, like unhealthy sexuality can really you can be really be tempted to do some, some awful things ruins your life.

you know, the good news is that we do not have to succumb to temptation. We can resist it. We can overcome it. And that’s what we’re going to talk about today in fact, in first Corinthians ten, the Bible says this about temptation. No temptation has overtaken you except what is common to mankind. And God is faithful. He will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can endure it. Isn’t that good news? It doesn’t say that we’ll never be tempted, but there is a way out. And so that’s what we’re going to talk about today. Before we get to the way out, we need to talk about the strategy of temptation.

We need to peel back the curtain on this and see how it all works. Once we can see it, we won’t be able to unsee it and then we’ll be prepared. The Bible says that there are three enemies, three enemies that tempt us into sin. And, they’re expressed this way. One is the devil, the personal, spiritual, intelligent being at the root of evil. The Bible mentions the devil also the flesh. That’s just simply means our biological forms, our bodies combined with our hearts and our minds, our desires and our urges, broken and distorted by sin. Sometimes the devil didn’t make you do it. Sometimes it’s all us, the flesh. And finally the world. The system and practices and standards associated with a society that attempts to live as if there is no God doesn’t refer to our globe, the continents that we live on, but the culture in which we live.

These, according to the Bible, are the three enemies that lead us into temptation. Let’s just unpack that a little bit here in John eight talking about the devil. This is what Jesus said about the devil. You belong to your father, the devil, and you want to carry out your father’s desires. He was a murderer from the beginning, not holding to the truth, for there’s no truth in him. When he lies, he speaks his native language, for he is a liar and the father of lies. It’s interesting. The devil is actually mentioned 84 times in the Bible, so it’s a subject that the Bible speaks a lot about Jesus taught about the devil or Satan, not as a force or a metaphor, but as a personal, intelligent, evil being at the root of the lies that lead us into temptation.

That’s our first enemy, but there’s also the flesh. What does the Bible say about this term, the flesh? Well, here’s an example of it in Galatians five. So I say to you, walk by the spirit, and you will not gratify the desires of the flesh. For the flesh desires what is contrary to the spirit, and the spirit what is contrary to the flesh. They are in conflict with each other, so that you are not to do whatever you want. The flesh is those those desires. We have legitimate desires by the way of to be loved, to be accepted, to be happy. It’s not that our desires are illegitimate, and yet so often we we try to fulfill those desires in a way that is not healthy or a way that is sinful against God.

And so sometimes we let ourselves down and the that’s the flesh. The term in the Bible is the flesh, and then finally the world. This is from first John two do not love the world or anything in the world. If anyone loves the world, love for the father is not in them. For everything in the world the lust of the flesh, the lust of the eyes, and the pride of life comes not from the father, but from the world. The world is that third enemy. You know, this summer I was shopping for cars. I shop for a car for my oldest daughter because hers died. And last time I spoke, I talked about that a little bit. And then I also helped my parents shop for a car. And I did all the research. You know, when you when you do this, you want to get.

There’s so many model make some models. Now you want to get the right one. And so I was searching for that and I was looking at that and kind of, you know, on the screen a lot about that. And then I go out to drive and it’s weird, like I’d see them everywhere. Have you ever experienced this? Like you focus on something and then that’s all you see. Like how many Mazda six fives can there be? There’s a lot, apparently, when you notice them, that’s what these three enemies are like. Once you see it, you can’t unsee it. Read the New Testament again with these eyes and think about the devil, the flesh in the world. It’s all over and it’s all over our lives as well.

These are the enemies that lead us into temptation. Now there’s a strategy that these three enemies use, according to the Scripture, to tempt us away from what is best for our lives, what is best for us that God wants for us. And I’m going to show you a book that I would highly recommend. A few years ago I read this book, Live No Lies by John Mark Comber, and he details the strategy that is used by our enemies to tempt us away and to get us off track. And in fact, we even read it as a family after I read it, because I really wanted especially my daughters, to understand this strategy. When you peel back the curtain of this, once you see it, like I said, you can’t unsee it. And then, you know, to be aware, you know, to be on your guard against these temptations.

And so I want to share them with you in the book. He he writes it like this. This is the strategy of our enemy. First, there are deceptive ideas. There are lies from the devil. Maybe. Maybe it’s an outright lie. Maybe it’s some truth and a lie. Maybe it’s bending the truth. It’s a deceptive idea. It gets into our heads and it plays to our disordered desires. In the flesh. We see a way to fulfill a desire that’s in our hearts. But it’s not the right way because our desires are disordered by sin, we fall prey to these deceptive ideas. And even worse, the these ideas are normalized in a sinful society. In other words, the people around us, we see it. We see them using these deceptive ideas to fulfill their disordered desires.

We even see it sometimes in our families or with our friends. And it’s very hard to get away from in our in media, in TV and movies, in novels, the content that we consume, it’s normalized in a sinful society. I want to give us a little example of how this works. I hope I don’t step on any toes, but, you know, whatever. We’ll cover it. What about cohabitation, marriage and divorce? Because I feel like there are a lot of deceptive ideas surrounding the idea of intimate relationships. Would you agree that these are not always perfect, that there are problems that we experience problems in our lives when we deal with romantic or intimate relationships? There’s a there’s an idea, deceptive idea about cohabitation.

this is the idea. It’s important for couples to cohabitate before marriage to determine if they are compatible and to save on financial expenses. Now, these ideas sound, right. They sound. It sounds logical. If I’m going to be with this person the rest of my life, shouldn’t I just try it out? Shouldn’t I just make sure that they’re compatible? And it’s interesting because it plays to some legitimate desires. Actually, it’s not wrong to want to save on expenses. Of course it’s not wrong, but that that doesn’t mean that this solution is right. And in terms of cohabitation itself being a good precursor to marriage, it simply does not work. Not only is it sinful according to the Bible, but study after study has proven that cohabitation does not lead to better or longer marriages.

I’m not going to bore you with all the studies. I looked at some, I wrote some down the Population Reference Bureau in 2020 did a study. cohabitating couples in the United States are staying together longer, but fewer are marrying. So if your goal is marriage, it doesn’t it doesn’t help you there. People who cohabitate and get married are more likely to get divorced. More likely, not less likely. there are many studies on that, including the Institute for Family Studies in October 2018. premarital cohabitation is still associated with greater odds of divorce. Cohabitation is up from 14% decades ago to 70% of all couples. They get married today, 70% of couples that eventually get married cohabitate today, though, the problem is that the, the rate of marriage is going down at the same time, and the rate of divorce is going up.

This strategy sounds logical. It’s normalized in our society, but it does not work. It’s a deceptive idea. But, you know, I don’t want to just talk about people living together, you know, let’s not pick just on them. What about marriage is, is, is is are their deceptive ideas about marriage? Yes, of course there are. Here’s one of the most common ones I will find my true self and a true acceptance in my spouse. I’ll get everything I need in that area from my spouse. Anyone that’s been married a while is laughing right now because they know it ain’t true. We love our spouses. We do get acceptance and love from our spouses. Of course we do, but we are all flawed people. You can’t get something perfect from an imperfect person. The strain that it puts on a marriage when one or both of the partners say, I am going to get all of my self-worth from this relationship, which sounds right.

It sounds good, but it’s it. It plays into disordered desires for that acceptance. And they can’t deliver. It just causes more and more stress. What about divorce? There’s, many deceptive ideas about divorce. I’ve heard them over the years. I’ve had several friends that have gone through divorce. Now, sometimes, you know, in the area of abuse or infidelity, I understand divorce is what’s needed. A separation is what’s needed. I’ve heard a lot of times. So I just want to be happy. Can’t I be happy? I got to live the rest of my life. I’m unhappy. Don’t I deserve happiness? I’ve heard that it plays to a legitimate desire to be happy. Is it wrong to want to be happy? No, it’s not wrong to be happy.

Does divorce make you happier? Study after study says no, it does not. In a recent study from the Institute of the University of Chicago, it found that people who get divorced are no happier than unhappy people that are sticking in marriages. They also found that it does nothing to reduce symptoms of depression, erase your self-esteem, or increase your sense of mastery in your life and we know that divorce wreaks havoc on families, especially children. It ruins finances. I mean, I could go on and on. This is how our enemy works. The point here is that there are deceptive ideas that play to our disordered desires. They sound right, they sound logical. They sound like something that would satisfy us. But they don’t. And they lead us into temptation. I have two daughters. They’re teenagers now.

They’re probably starting to get tired of me talking about, you know, the evils of cohabitation. I just I don’t want them to do it. It’s not going to help them. I care about that as a dad. I don’t want that for them. I don’t want that for anybody. Anyone who’s been deceived by deceptive idea. Well, we need to turn the corner now and talk about how to resist, how to get out of this, how to see these deceptive ideas and counter them. Unfortunately, Jesus gives us an example. In fact, if you grew up in church at all, you might know that Jesus was tempted by the devil in the desert. And it’s kind of a famous story because it happens in three parts. And, it’s a it’s a good story, and it’s in Matthew and Luke, the gospel of Matthew and Luke, and it’s mentioned in Mark.

So we’re going to go to the story and see what Jesus did to resist temptation. And from there, we’ll get our own strategy to resist the strategy of temptation. And our three enemies. We’ll pick it up here in Matthew four. When Jesus was led by the spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil after fasting 40 days and 40 nights, he was hungry. The tempter came to him and said, if you are the Son of God, tell these stones to become bread. Jesus answered, it is written, man shall not live on bread alone, but on every word that comes from the mouth of God. Well, what’s happening here? There’s a deceptive idea here, because on the surface, when you read this, don’t you think, well, if he’s hungry and he’s God and he can do whatever he wants, why doesn’t he just make these stones bread?

What’s wrong with that? It’s a deceptive idea. The spirit led him into the wilderness. When you’re fasting, that’s a form of prayer. Jesus has been praying and fasting for 40 days, led by God himself out into the wilderness to prepare himself for his public ministry, his three years of public ministry. That’s where with this story finds Jesus, it wasn’t right for him to eat fasting was the point. Not eating, focusing his mind on his mission. It was wrong for him to do that. And of course, just a tip if you ever really think the devil’s asking you to do something, don’t do it. I think that’s probably wise. So there’s that too. Jesus counters it with the Word of God. It is written. He goes right to.

I put this reference so you can see where these scriptures come from. He goes to Deuteronomy four and says, man should not live by bread alone, but the devil’s not done the best and the worst things always happen in threes. This is what the devil did next. He took him to the holy city and had him stand on the highest point in the temple. If you were the Son of God, he said, throw yourself down, for it is written, he will command his angels concerning you, and they will lift you up on their hands, so that you will not strike your foot against a stone. Jesus answered him. It is also written, do not put the Lord your God to the test. Well, what’s happening here?

The temple would have been the most populated place in the city of Jerusalem, and the highest point of the temple would be the focal point, the visual focal point of the city. And the devil saying, hey, look, do you want people to believe in you? Do you want to accomplish your mission? Look at what? Look at what Psalm 91 says. Just cast yourself off and levitate. Float and just float around the people for a little bit and then land. And what are people going to think? You’re obviously a supernatural being. Of course they’re going to believe in you. Why suffer? Why go through the next three years? Just do it right now. It’s a it’s a it’s a disordered desire play because our world says use power to control people.

The devil is saying, just use your power to control these people’s belief. But that was not the way that God had for Jesus. That was not the path that he was destined to go on. And this, this Psalm, is not about testing God. It’s about trusting God. You see how the devil bent that bent that truth? So Jesus said, don’t put your don’t put the Lord your God to the test. And he countered that temptation. Finally, the third one, the devil took him to a very high mountain and showed him all the kingdoms of the world and their splendor. All this I will give you, he said, if you bow down and worship me. Jesus said to him, away from me, Satan. For it is written, worship the Lord your God, and serve him.

Only then the devil left him, and angels came and attended him. Now this idea is not very deceptive. Do you know where this comes from? He’s asking him to break the first of the Ten Commandments. The very first one. So the gloves are kind of off. And the devil, maybe he’s a little frustrated. He’s not getting deceptive ideas. And so he’s just, you know, kind of making a power play here. But Jesus knows what to do. He knows that to worship anyone except the Lord our God is the path of disaster. And so he just quotes again from Deuteronomy, worship the Lord your God and serve him only well. What can we learn from this?

First, is it possible to be tempted in situations where you don’t think you’re going to be tempted? Jesus was praying. He was fasting and praying. That’s like being in church. Can you be tempted while you’re sitting here in church? Yeah, you can be tempted anywhere. It can happen at any time, anywhere. You might be thinking, though. Wait a minute. Don’t we believe that Jesus led a sinless life? Don’t we believe that his his desires were not disordered, but they were perfectly ordered. So of course this strategy is going to work for him. But why will it work for me? Because my I’m not perfect. I mean, I know I’m not perfect. Hey, we all know that. How is this going to work?

Why why why would you even put this in the Bible? And I think that’s a really important question. How do we even know this happened? Think about it. There’s only two characters in this story Jesus and the devil, so there’s no one else around. How did this get in the Bible? The only way it could have gotten in the Bible is if Jesus went back to his disciples and told them the whole story. Well, why would he do that? To brag? No, that’s not in Jesus’s character. The only reason this the story is in the Bible. The only reason he told it to his disciples is because Jesus knew that this strategy would work for us as well. And the reason it works is because it doesn’t depend on our disordered desires. It depends on the Word of God.

If you want to know how to pray, to resist temptation, if you want to know how to counter the strategy of our enemy, this is the key. Use God’s Word to resist temptation. Whether it’s the devil, our flesh, or the word world, use God’s word. That’s what Jesus did. He literally quoted scripture in prayer. Think about it. Where do you get truth? That question is very much more complicated now than it was ten, 20, 30 years ago. How do you know what you hear is true? How do you even know it’s true? When someone that you trust says it? It’s very complicated. Now. There’s so many people saying so many things. There’s only one source of dependable truth. If you believe that the Bible is the Word of God, the very Word of God, and that God cannot lie, then the Bible is the only source of truth that we can depend on.

And Jesus is saying, go there. First of all, he’s saying, Read God’s Word, read God’s Word. It’s important. Make it a habit. Make it a discipline. If you feel your life with truth, there’s very little room in your heart, in your mind for lies. Read it. Have you been reading God’s Word? I do this in various ways. I just want to share one with you. I went to a website, maybe 10 or 12 years ago called Bible gateway.com. It’s just a Bible website, and they have a thing in there where you just put your email address in and they’ll send you a Bible verse every day in your email. And this isn’t the only way that I read God’s Word, but I love it because I always check my email every day, no matter what.

And when I do. There’s always a bit of God’s Word in there for me. Read God’s Word, find the weights, put it on your bathroom mirror, I don’t know. Get the app. The Bible app is great. Whatever you have to do, read God’s Word, but go a step further. Know God’s Word. Jesus was ready to quote these these passages from the Old Testament. He knew God’s Word intimately. How did he do that? Through study, through repetition, through meditation, through memorization. I want to tell you that this is something that your church can help you with. This is part of what we do together to encourage one another. And as executive director, I can tell you that we have a number of great Bible studies this fall.

Thursday morning, women gather for a Bible study. They study God’s Word. They do a great job. Monday night we have men’s and women’s Bible studies. We have other studies meeting throughout the week. In October, we will do another session of what we called Midweek Refresh. You can bring your family. There will be kids programing based on God’s Word, and we’ll have Bible studies there and even a new one on prayer. If you want to keep this this going on, how to, you know, leverage your prayer life. In fact, I would challenge you. You don’t have to be religious. It’s not a religious thing. It’s not a duty thing. Counter your enemies. Be prepared for the attacks that come against you. Get into a Bible study. Know God’s word. That’s what they’re for.

Encourage one another. Be together. Encourage one another to know God’s Word. And finally pray God’s Word. What did Jesus do? He used the very words of God. Are you struggling with a temptation in any area? Are you confused about something you think maybe you need to take action on something in your life, and you’re not sure? Is this a temptation and might be led astray? Or is this a good idea? Go to God’s Word right in prayer. Just look it up. Look up. We’ll look up what’s bothering you. There will be passages of Scripture to help. Psalm 119 says, your word have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against you? And Jesus said in John, make them holy with the truth.

Your word is truth. It’s in there. It will help. I want to close with a story. Sometimes the older stories are the most powerful in your life. Do you find that this is a story about when I was in junior high school, in high school, and I see a few young people in here, so maybe this will resonate with you. I think a lot of people had this issue in their life, but when I was that age, I had a lot of anxiety, particularly around school and social relationships and friendships, and it was pretty bad. And I really struggled with it. It, and especially in those years. And I thought to myself, and I’ve never thought of it this way before, I always thought this of this is an anxiety problem.

You know what it really was? It was a temptation problem was a deceptive idea. Problem because I thought if I could just be accepted by some people at school, if I could just have some friends, if I could just be in a crowd of people, then I would get that acceptance and love that I knew I needed in my heart. Do you see there was a deceptive idea, plain to a disordered desire in my heart. And so I tried, I did that I it was normalized in our society to be like everyone else, just be like people so that they will like you. And that’s what I did. And by eighth grade, I was pretty good at that. And I actually had these friends, but they didn’t know the real me.

It wasn’t even my it wasn’t even the real me anymore. I was just doing whatever I needed to do to get them to like me. And then we moved. We didn’t just move houses, we moved out of state. I moved to a completely different school in ninth grade was a really tough year, and I thought to myself, If I’m going to start over, I mean, this took me so long to be accepted by these people. Now I had to do it all over again. It was just really crushing and I would stay awake at night and I would just, I don’t know, I would just pray to God help me, I don’t know what to do. And I was believing these lies that no one would be my friend, that the next day was going to be awful and I just didn’t know what to do.

And God gave me this verse that I have treasured all my life. It’s found in Philippians four. This is what it says do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God and the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. And that rocked my world because I realized the peace doesn’t come from me. It doesn’t come from my friends. I can’t manufacture it. I can’t fake it. There’s only one who came to earth and lived the life we should have lived and died to death. That we should have died for the sins that we cannot control or get rid of.

And he rose again from the dead. That is the gospel. We do not need to live lost lives. We do not need to follow these deceptive ideas because of Christ. Where does the peace come from? The peace of God, not the peace of JJ. What will it do? It will guard your heart and your mind. And I can’t say that every day was perfect after I realized this, but it got way better. And it’s something that I’ve carried with me into my adult life. And I’ve prayed that verse so many times. God, I need your peace. That’s the truth. I want to ask you today what you’re dealing with. Just think about it. Have you been dealing with something for years? Sometimes the lie is so deceptive that you’re not even aware that you’re being tempted to do something that’s unhealthy for you, because it’s so normalized in our society, we think it’s right and it’s not right.

It’s killing us from the inside out. I encourage us and challenge us to go to God’s Word in prayer. The Bible says, resist the devil and he will flee from you. There is power in this. This is not some little, you know, religious right. It’s the power of God in our very lives to affect change, to become healthy, to become a God wants us to be. If there’s a temptation in your life and you know that you’re stuck in it, you can be free. There is a way out. Don’t give up. God is with you. His peace is with you.

I can’t think of a better way to end our series today than to stand together and go back to that prayer that God taught us to pray. So let’s stand. And let’s just pray this prayer together, with full hearts and minds and ears open to receive what God has for us. Let’s say this together. Our father who art in heaven, hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come, thy will be done on earth as it is in heaven. Give us this day our daily bread, and forgive us our trespasses, as we forgive those who trespass against us. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil. For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory forever and ever. Amen, Amen.