“Then Jesus said, “Let’s go off by ourselves to a quiet place and rest awhile.” He said this because there were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat.” Mark 6:31 NLT
I remember a very stressful time in my life that ended up with a hospital visit to deal with painful stomach problems. It turned out to be nothing serious, but I still remember the nurse asking me what my profession was. With embarrassment I acknowledged that I was a Christian pastor.
It was then that I started to learn the value of practicing daily, weekly and periodic Sabbath's for my body and soul.
I can't say that I always practiced Sabbath. In fact, often I ended up being forced into Sabbath rather than taking them before I needed to.
It has been said: We can worry or we can worship. Strangely enough, busy people find it a whole lot easier to worry than to worship.
Warren Wiersbe once said, “The ability to calm your soul and wait before God is one of the most difficult things in the Christian life. Our old nature is restless...the world around us is frantically in a hurry. But a restless heart usually leads to a reckless life.”
Rest. It’s a word we hear often enough, but do we really understand it’s importance in our lives? When I read through the Gospels I am impressed by the relaxed, calm pace Jesus kept from day to day. You never once see Jesus in a hurry. Even when one of Jesus’ closest friends, Lazarus, was on his deathbed, Jesus took His time getting to Bethany to be with Lazarus.
How is it that Jesus moved through life so slowly and yet accomplished so much? Is there something we contemporary Christians have missed? I am reminded of a story…
It seems there were two woodsmen. One day one woodsman challenged another to an all-day tree chopping contest. The challenger worked very hard, stopping only for a brief lunch break. The other man had a leisurely lunch and took several breaks during the day. At the end of the day, the challenger was surprised and annoyed to find that the other fellow had chopped substantially more wood than he had.
“I don’t get it,” he said. “Every time I checked, you were taking a rest, yet you chopped more wood than I did.”” But you didn’t notice,” said the winning woodsman, “that I was sharpening my ax when I sat down to rest.”
Mark 6:31: Then Jesus said, "Let’s get away from the crowds for a while and rest." There were so many people coming and going that Jesus and his apostles didn’t even have time to eat.
Rest is not only vital to our spiritual lives, it is imperative if we are to be effective. Christ understood this principle and made it a point to get away both with His disciples and by Himself from time to time in order to rest and rejuvenate.
It was Jesus way of “recharging” His spiritual, physical and emotional batteries. In doing so, He set an example for you and I to follow. We are a people too busy for our own good, too busy to stop and realize that in our frantic business we are actually accomplishing less and aging more.
According to a Greek legend, in ancient Athens a man noticed the great storyteller Aesop playing childish games with some little boys. He laughed and jeered at Aesop, asking him why he wasted his time in such frivolous activity.
Aesop responded by picking up a bow, loosening its string, and placing it on the ground. Then he said to the critical Athenian, “Now, answer the riddle, if you can. Tell us what the unstrung bows implies.” The man looked at it for several moments but had no idea what point Aesop was trying to make. Aesop explained, “If you keep a bow always bent, it will break eventually; but if you let it go slack, it will be more fit for use when you want it.”
People are also like that. That’s why we all need to take time to rest. In today’s Scripture, Jesus prescribed time off for His wearied disciples after they had returned from a prolonged period of ministry.
And in the Old Testament, God set a pattern for us when He “rested from all His work” (Gen. 2:3). Shouldn’t we take His example seriously?
Start by setting aside a special time to relax physically and renew yourself emotionally and spiritually. You will be at your best for the Lord if you have taken time to loosen the bow. It is important that you "come away and rest." You and the people you will associate with will thank you.
““Again, the Kingdom of Heaven is like a fishing net that was thrown into the water and caught fish of every kind. When the net was full, they dragged it up onto the shore, sat down, and sorted the good fish into crates, but threw the bad ones away. That is the way it will be at the end of the world. The angels will come and separate the wicked people from the righteous, throwing the wicked into the fiery furnace, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matthew 13:47-50 NLT
To speak about hell is not very popular. It never has been nor will it ever be in the future. But it is necessary.
Ted Turner, founder of Turner Broadcasting blasted the Christian faith at a speech to the National Press Club. He said, "Remember, heaven is going to be perfect. And I don’t really want to be there. Those of us that go to hell, which will be most of us in this room, most journalists are certainly going there. But when we get there we’ll have a chance to make things better because hell is supposed to be a mess. And heaven is perfect. Who wants to go to a place that is perfect? Boring, boring."
Also in late 1989, Turner told Dallas Morning News that "Christianity is a religion for losers." Christ died on the cross, but Turner said He shouldn’t have bothered. "I don’t want anybody dying for me. I’ve had a few drinks and a few girlfriends and if that’s gonna put me in hell, then so be it."
Ted Turner, you may be smart when it comes to the world and making money, but you are not a smart man when it comes to the reality of eternity.
On July 16, 1741, Jonathan Edwards stood before his congregation and preached a message titled, Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. People began to shake under the conviction of their sins. Some fell to the floor, crying out for mercy. That morning, his church encountered God and the Great Awakening began to sweep across New England.
It’s quite different in most pulpits today. In one article for Newsweek Kenneth Woodward wrote, "Churchgoers take comfort: hell has all but disappeared from modern Christian theology. But this comes at a price."
Another preacher wrote, “Hell, it would seem, has fallen on rather lean times. It used to be that the vast majority of Christians, regardless of denominational affiliation, believed that Hell was a real place where the wicked and the impenitent go when they died. The very thought of the pains and torments of Hell was enough to scare sinners straight. It used to be that ministers of the Gospel would preach on the horrors of Hell to persuade reprobates to repentance. But not anymore. Most American mainline and so-called Evangelical churches stopped preaching about Hell years ago. Most mainline ministers stopped believing in Hell years before that. Hell made people uncomfortable. Hell was too ‘old-fashioned.’ The topic of Hell was bad for the bottom line—attendance and income….”
Our passage today draws a picture of a fishing net that drags all sorts of fish in - good and bad. They were divided and the bad was thrown away.
Some fish and some things in life are not worth much. Perhaps not even worth saving for anyone. They are fit only to be culled and thrown away. And so shall it be in hell.
But the problem is many people just don’t get it. They just don’t understand this eternal, Biblical truth of God. To avoid hell WE MUST UNDERSTAND GOD’S WORD!
Bill Hybels, the pastor of Willow Creek Church in Chicago which has over 20,000 people in attendance each week, tells the story of an encounter he had with a young woman.
He said, “I recall one time being in a restaurant studying for a message, and a gal looked over from her table and saw me reading my Bible. She said, ‘Why do you study that stuff?’ And I thought, just to stimulate a little discussion, I’d try to knock her off balance. So I said, ‘Because I don’t feel like going to hell when I die.’
“I was going to be really blunt, but I took the edge off it a little bit. And she said, ‘There is no such thing as heaven or hell.’ I thought, Well, I got something going now.
“So I turned in my chair and I said, ‘Why do you say that?’ She said, ‘Everybody knows that when you die your candle goes out — poof ’ I said, ‘You mean to tell me there’s no afterlife?’ ‘No.’ ‘So that means you must be able to just live as you please?’ ‘That’s right.’ ‘Like, there’s no Judgment Day or anything?’ ‘No.’
“I said, ‘Well, that’s fascinating to me. Where did you hear that?’ She said, ‘I read it somewhere.’‘Can you give me the name of the book?’ ‘I don’t recall.’ ‘Can you give me the name of the author of the book?’ ‘I forget his name.’ ‘Did that author write any other books?’ ‘I don’t know.’ ‘Is it possible that your author changed his mind two years after he wrote this particular book and then wrote another one that said there is a heaven and a hell? Is that possible?’ ‘It’s possible but not likely.’
“‘All right,’ I said. ‘Let me get this straight. You are rolling the dice on your eternity predicated on what someone you don’t even know wrote in a book you can’t even recall the title of. Have I got that straight?’
“I was playing a little Columbo act with her. She looked me right in the eye and said, ‘That’s right.’ And I said back to her, ‘You know what I think, sweetheart? I think you have merely created a belief that guarantees the continuation of your unencumbered lifestyle. I think you made it up, because it is very discomforting to think of a heaven. It is a very discomforting thought to think of a hell. It is very unnerving to face a holy God in the day of reckoning. I think you made it all up.’ We had quite a conversation after that.”
Like the young woman in Hybel’s story, many people today don’t want to believe in hell, because they do not want to change the way they live. They easily accept anything that smacks of doubt, because it gives them relief from thinking about the reality of eternity. But Jesus wanted people to think about eternity often. In fact, the Bible is almost silent about the subject of hell, except for the words of Jesus. This only makes sense, because we would expect that the One who came from eternity would know and talk about eternity more than anyone else.
Revelation 21:8 “But the cowardly, the unbelieving, the vile, the murderers, the sexually immoral, those who practice magic arts, the idolaters and all liars — their place will be in the fiery lake of burning sulfur. This is the second death.”
There are multitudes of people who have preconceived ideas about hell or no ideas at all. But in order to avoid hell people need to understand God’s will. And the only place to get that understanding is in God’s Word.
As someone said, “Read the Bible. It will scare hell out of you.” Or will hopefully, scare a person enough to keep them out of hell.
TO AVOID HELL WE MUST LISTEN TO AND UNDERSTAND GOD’S MESSAGE. We need to listen and listen well!
A preacher in the Midwest tells about a young couple in his church who boasted to all their friends and neighbors that they were flying to New York City. They were only going to be able to spend one day there, but the highlight of their trip would be to go see the Broadway play, “My Fair Lady.” They were so proud of this and everyone was really impressed because no one else in that small town had ever been to a play on Broadway.
The day came and when they arrived in New York they took a taxi to the theater where “My Fair Lady” was playing. To their dismay, they found that the play was sold out for the night.
They thought, “What do we do now? Everybody knows that we came to see ‘My Fair Lady.’ We don’t dare tell them that we didn’t.” So they found a couple of ticket stubs on the sidewalk and picked them up. They bought a program that described the various acts of the play. They went home singing “I Could Have Danced all Night.” And they told everybody that they had gone to see “My Fair Lady.”
The preacher said, “That’s right. They had the ticket stubs. They had the program. They had been to the theater. They knew the music. But the trouble is, they didn’t see the performance.”
Many people today are like that. They may go to church occasionally. They may sing the songs, bow their heads and perhaps even give some money, but they never really believed and trusted Christ for their salvation. It was just an act.
Matthew 7:21 “Not everyone who says to me, ’Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only he who does the will of my Father who is in heaven.”
If you are not sure, you need to make sure. You need to put your trust in Christ and in Christ alone. It is the only way to heaven. It is the only way to escape hell.
That is something to think about as you go about your life today.
“Then Jesus said, “Come to me, all of you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”” Matthew 11:28-30 NLT
We all have burdens. Some have a physical handicap, chronic sickness, or some abnormality you cannot change.
Some have spiritual burdens. It may be that “Hurricane Satan” has struck your life and the surge of sin has soaked your soul, and now you are suffering spiritual consequences.
Some have emotional burdens like depression or anxiety, a heartache over some loss, or a financial reversal.
I once heard of a Chinese woman lost her dear son and could not find comfort. She went to wise old man and asked what to do. He said “go to a home that has no sorrow or grief, and bring back a mustard seed, and I will restore your son." Several days went by, and she returned and said, “I have been so selfish in my grief…sorrow is common to every home.”
We all have problems and cares, and they weigh down upon us like a burden on the back.
We don’t all have wealth, but we all have burdens…
Every day of life here on earth brings to us it’s own assortment of burdens, and we will be blessed to study God’s answer to the question, “What do I do with my burdens?”
1. Some burdens are meant to be shared [by others]
Sorrows. Failures. Grief. Disappointment. These things will eventually visit the house of every person on earth.
One of the reasons that God allows sorrows to come to us…so we can be comforted, and then in turn comfort others in need once we’ve been thru it.
“He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us.” 2 Corinthians 1:4 NLT
Let’s not wallow in self-pity and allow our tragedies to be wasted…God wants to use them for good in others. Many of you have been thru things that uniquely qualify you to help others I cannot help!
2. Some burdens are meant to be shouldered [alone]
The consequences of your sin is something you have to shoulder yourself.
We live in a day and time in which people want to sin and ignore the consequences [avoid them]. People want to blame others and pass the buck. They don't want to be accountable for their sins.
The reality is this: You can choose to sin but you can choose the consequences! We have a free will, and so does God when He reads our meter!
Everyone reading this today will someday stand before God…alone! I cannot stand with you and no one with me. Your parents won’t be beside you or your attorney. We will all have to give an account.
3. Some burdens are meant to be shed
“Give your burdens to the LORD, and he will take care of you. He will not permit the godly to slip and fall.”Psalms 55:22 NLT
Jesus is our great burden bearer. Sometimes we cling to a burden and try to carry it ourselves. We can be deceived into thinking God wants us to carry something by ourselves as if we are somehow serving God by doing so…but some burdens He wants to carry for us, if we’ll let Him.
When it’s more than you can bear and you don’t think you can take another step, you can lay it on Jesus.
For some reason, sometimes we feel like we can make it ourselves. But there are times when we need to let go and let God!
One of these two things will happen when we cast our burden on the Lord:
-The Lord will lift the burden
I’ve seen people have a health need, and they pray, and it goes away. They have a financial need…and God provides the money.
It’s always great when that’s how it happens. But that’s not always how God works…
Look again at Ps. 55:22 which says, “and He take care of you.”
It doesn't promise that God will take away the burden but it does promise that will take care of you or "sustain" you.
- God will pick you up and carry you. "He will not permit the godly to slip or fall."
Paul prayed 3x's for God to take away the burden and each time God reminded him that He would give him the grace to go through this.
Some of you are getting bitter toward God because you’ve asked Him to lift your burden and it doesn’t seem that He has…but please realize it may be His will to lift you up, and carry you and that burden through it all. But when we throw a perpetual pity party we don’t allow Him to carry us or the burden either!
I love the old chorus - “I must tell Jesus, all of my trials, I cannot bear these burdens alone in my distress He kindly will help me, He ever loves and cares for His own.”
Whatever burden you might have today can be put under the blood and protection of Jesus Christ. He says, "...For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I give you is light.”
““Therefore I say to you, every sin and blasphemy will be forgiven men, but the blasphemy against the Spirit will not be forgiven men. Anyone who speaks a word against the Son of Man, it will be forgiven him; but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit, it will not be forgiven him, either in this age or in the age to com." Matthew 12:31-32 NKJV
There are a lot of scriptures verses on sin in the Bible but this one in particular has a haunting overtone to it - it is about the one sin that is unforgivable.
The scene that precedes these words of Jesus in Matthew 12 is this: A man who was both blind and mute has just been healed. Matthew tells us that this man was possessed by a demon, and that Jesus ordered the demon out of him. Once the demon left, then the man was able to see and speak.
It should have been a moment of great rejoicing, because the man could see the faces of loved ones and friends. He could see the beauties of nature, and he could communicate with people for perhaps the first time in his life.
But it was not a time of rejoicing for everyone. Hard-hearted Pharisees were upset by what Jesus had done. They could not deny His miracle, but they could attempt to explain it away. So they said, "It is only by Beelzebub, the prince of demons, that this fellow drives out demons" (Matthew 12:24).
Jesus responds to them by stating that He and Satan have nothing in common with one another and that He is the stronger of the two.
It is then that Jesus talks about the one sin that is unforgivable - that of sinning against the Holy Spirit.
I hear it often from people - "I have committed the unpardonable sin." What exactly does that mean?
Before we can answer that question correctly, we need to know the responsibilities that God has given to the Holy Spirit today.
Listen to this promise that Jesus made in John 14:16-17, "I will ask the Father, and He will give you another Counselor to be with you forever - the Spirit of truth. The world cannot accept Him, because it neither sees Him nor knows Him . . ."
Notice that word, "Counselor." In some translations you’ll find the word "Comforter" instead. The Greek word here is "paraclete" and it means "one who stands alongside."
In the Greek courts a "paraclete" was a witness who came to testify in your defense. Your lawyer, your defense attorney who used all his ability to speak on your behalf was also called a "paraclete."
The Bible tells us that the Holy Spirit comforts us in time of trouble or sorrow; He helps us to overcome temptations and to live the way we ought; He educates our conscience; He helps us to pray as we ought; and He bears witness to God on our behalf that we are children of God.
Jesus also said two other very important things about the Holy Spirit in John 14:16-17. Did you notice them? He promised that the Holy Spirit would be with us forever, and also said that the Holy Spirit would not be known or received by everyone - but just by those who are Christians.
The Holy Spirit is God’s final contact, God’s last attempt to reach man and save him from sin. The Holy Spirit is God’s agent in the world today showing us the great love of God & offering us His salvation.
To the Christian, the Holy Spirit is God’s great Helper - helping us where we are weak, lifting us up when we fall, comforting us in trouble or sorrow, guiding us in the way we ought to go, and standing alongside us as a witness for our defense before God on that great judgment day.
At the time that Jesus was speaking, the Jews had their own teachings about the Holy Spirit. According to Jewish teaching the Holy Spirit had two supreme functions.
First, the Holy Spirit brought God’s truth to men; the Holy Spirit was God’s instrument in helping us come to know God’s will for us.
Second, the Holy Spirit enabled men to recognize and understand God’s truth when they saw it; the Holy Spirit works upon the heart & minds of men.
Therefore, man needs the Holy Spirit both to receive and to recognize God’s truth. To put it another way, the Holy Spirit is working on us to cause us to believe in Jesus Christ, and to bring us to accept Him as our Savior & Lord.
But we dare not forget a very important principle of life, "What you don’t use, you lose." This principle is true in almost every area of life.
1. It is true physically. If we cease to use & exercise certain muscles, they will weaken and become unusable.
2. It is true mentally. Most of us learned things in school that we have since completely forgotten - because we haven’t used them in years. Maybe it was a foreign language - or how to play a musical instrument. The knowledge we once had has long since gone because we did not exercise and make use of it.
3. It is true morally. We can lose the ability to enjoy good clean fun - if we spend long enough in seeking our pleasure among those things which are soiled & degraded. What we see and hear, & with what kind of people & pleasures we indulge ourselves can really be a matter of life & death.
We can also lose the ability to be moved or changed by God’s goodness and truth when the Holy Spirit presents it to us.
If we consistently shut our eyes and ears to God’s way, and insist on our own way; If we continually refuse to listen to the guidance God’s word offers to us, & turn our backs upon the messages which the Holy Spirit brings; if we continue to prefer our own ideas to the ideas that God is seeking to put into our heart and mind; then in the end we will come to the stage where nothing the Holy Spirit seeks to do will move or change us in any way.
But why should that sin be unforgivable? What makes it so much worse than all other sins? The answer is simple. When someone reaches that stage, repentance becomes impossible.
1. If we cannot recognize good when we see it, we can’t desire the good.
2. If we do not recognize evil as being evil, we can’t be sorry for it, and hate it, and wish to change for the better.
3. If we cannot love the good and hate the evil, then we can’t repent; and if we do not repent, we cannot be forgiven, because repentance is a vital condition for forgiveness.
It was to that stage that the Pharisees had come. They had so long been deliberately blind and deaf to God that they had lost the ability to recognize God when they were confronted by Him.
It was not God who had shut them out; they had shut themselves out, for years of resistance to God had made them what they were. They stopped hearing God and they resisted who God was.
There is a story of a farmer who was in the office of a city friend, with the roar of the traffic coming through the windows. Suddenly the farmer said, "Listen!" "What is it?" asked the city man. "A grasshopper," said the farmer.
Years of listening to country sounds had attuned his ears to country sounds, sounds that a city man’s ear did not hear at all.
On the other hand, let a coin drop, and a banker will hear it immediately, while the farmer might not hear it at all.
Only the expert, the man who has made himself able to hear it, will pick out the note of each individual bird in the chorus of sounds.
Only the expert, the man who has made himself able to hear it, will distinguish the different instruments in the orchestra.
It is the law of life that we hear what we have trained ourselves to hear. Day by day we must listen to God’s word, so that God’s voice may become, not fainter and fainter until we cannot hear it at all, but clearer and clearer until it becomes the one sound to which our ears are attuned.
We must train ourselves to be "listeners of God" - attuned to the Holy Spirit on a daily basis.
So what is the greatest sin of all - it is the sin of resistance to God. It is not hearing His direction for our lives. It resisting His voice and it is refusing to follow His will. We must all pray for pliable and softened hearts. We must yield ourselves totally to God's leading and presence. It is only then that we won't commit the worst sin of all.
"He must increase, but I must decrease -- He must grow more prominent, I must grow less so." John 3:30 (The Amplified Bible)
All of us by now have heard the remarkable story of Todd Beamer. He was the man who led the attack on the terrorists, who had hijacked United’s Flight 93.
He is now famous for his two words, "Let’s roll!" which became the battle cry on the plane that morning.
In 1992, Todd made a list of the values and characteristics he wanted to identify in his life. A major goal of his was, "I want to fly below the radar screen."
By that he meant that he wanted to be inconspicuous and endeavor to maintain a low profile.
It is very obvious that John the Baptist knew nothing about radar screens. Yet he seemed to adopt the principle involved as his philosophy for life.
He says, in the words of the text, "He (Jesus) must grow more prominent; I must grow less so."
John didn’t use the American approach to the ministry. He had not had the Dale Carnegie course. He called them "vipers."
But Jesus said of him, "Verily I say unto you, among them that are born of women there hath not risen a greater than John the Baptist." Matthew 11:11.
The key to his life was the fact that he decided to take the low road of humility.
The religious leaders came out to him and asked him, "Who art thou?" He did not say, "I am the founder and president of the Jordan River Protest Movement."
Rather, he said, "I am the voice of the one crying in the wilderness." He did not become his own press agent. He flew below the radar screen.
When questioned about whether he might be Jesus, he said, "I am not worthy to even untie his shoes."
The scribes and Pharisees lived by a different philosophy. Matthew 23:5 says, " But all their works they do for to be seen of men." They wanted the best seats at feasts and in the synagogues.
I've watched people over the years and it quite glaring that people are more about themselves rather than being about others.
Luke 22:26 states, "He that is greatest among you, let him be as the younger; and he that is chief, as he that doth serve."
A little country boy was fishing with a makeshift pole, but oh was he catching fish! A city fellow had the finest fishing tackles, but was having no success at all. He decided to ask the country boy about his success. The boy replied, "The secret of it all is that I keep myself out of sight."
And, too, the secret of it all in Christian ministry is that we keep ourselves out of sight. In other words fly below the radar screen!
Life is not about patting yourself on the back and about listing all the platitudes that have come your way. Life is about learning to serve, have the heart to serve and then doing it.
The more you see of me should also be the more you are seeing of Jesus. I must decrease but He must increase.
“You see, we don’t go around preaching about ourselves. We preach that Jesus Christ is Lord, and we ourselves are your servants for Jesus’ sake.” 2 Corinthians 4:5 NLT
“When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.” Luke 4:13 NLT
There are no perfect people. None. Although we might be a Christian - we still live in a sin laden world dealing with life's ups and downs and even with temptation.
Some time ago I heard an interesting story of how an Eskimo hunter kills a wolf.
First, the Eskimo coats his knife blade with animal blood and allows it to freeze. Then he adds another layer of blood, and another, until the blade is completely concealed by frozen blood.
Next, the hunter fixes his knife in the ground with the blade up.
When a wolf follows his sensitive nose to the source of the scent and discovers more the bait, he licks it, tasting the fresh frozen blood He begins to lick faster, more and more vigorously, lapping the blade until the keen edge is bare.
Feverishly now, harder and harder, the wolf licks the blade in the Arctic night.
So great becomes the craving for blood that the wolf does not notice the razor sharp sting of the naked blade on his own tongue or does he recognize the instant at which his insatiable thirst is being satisfied by his own warm blood.
His carnivorous appetite just craves more – until the dawn finds him dead in the snow!
Isn't that like temptation? Before you know it - it has slowly consumed you until it actually kills you.
Oscar Wilde once said, "I can withstand anything except temptation." In other words, The only way to get rid of temptation is to give into it.
The Bible talks about two different kinds of testings. One is called trials. The other is called temptation.
Both of them use the same word in Greek -- "peirasmos". Sometimes it's translated "trials", sometimes "temptations".
It doesn't matter because sometimes a situation can be both a trial and a temptation. But to distinguish them -- trials are situations designed by God in order to help us grow.
Temptations are designed by the devil in order to cause us to sin.
James 1:12 "Blessed is the man who endures temptation: for when he is tried, he shall receive the crown of life, which the Lord has promised to them that love him."
There is a prize, a reward, for enduring temptation.
Notice that it said "blessed" -- happy.
Happiness comes from having your life under control, so that there is no bad habit that is devastating you.
When you know how to say "no" to temptation it produces happiness in your life.
The question that comes up is this: "How do I handle temptation? How do I say no when I want to say yes?"
James, being the practical apostle that he is, gives us five principles.
1. Be Realistic
Face the fact: You will be tempted. Even Christians are tempted. All of us are tempted.
"When he is / tried tempted ... " not "if" but "when." Trials and temptations are inevitable.
2. Be Responsible
Accept responsibility. Don't blame other people for your problems. We love to blame people, even God.
James 1:13 Let no one say when he is tempted, "I am tempted by God"; for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone.
God does not tempt, but we love to blame others.
Will Rogers said you could summarize American history into two great movements: the passing of the buffalo and the passing of the buck.
We are in a society of irresponsibility. Blame society, blame the government, blame the environment, blame heredity, blame your parents, blame your spouse, blame the devil, even blame God.
3. Be Ready (James 1:14-16)
When temptation comes, be ready. Be prepared for it.
Peter says, "Be on your guard." Jesus said, "Watch and pray that you enter not into temptation."
Paul said, "Put on the whole armor of God". Be ready. Be prepared.
James 1:14 But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed.
James 1:16 Do not be deceived, my beloved brethren.
Temptation does not warn you in advance. One of the reasons it's a temptation is because you don't even know it's there. It catches you by surprise. You've got to be ready and on your guard. We are most vulnerable after a tremendous success. We think we're doing OK.
The Bible says, "Let him who thinks he standeth, take heed lest he fall."
I think of Bobby Leach who went over Niagara Falls in a barrel and came out unharmed. A couple of days later he slipped on an orange peal and broke his leg. It's the little things in life that kill us.
James is saying, Be ready, don't be deceived.
How do you prepare for temptation? How do you get ready for it? By understanding how it operates.
The first step of temptation is desire.
v. 14 "Each one is tempted when, by his own evil desires..."
It's an inside job. Most desires are OK. You couldn't live without desires: a desire to eat, drink, sleep, the sexual desire, to accomplish.
God gives us these desires. Those are good desires. They are good gifts.
But any desire out of control becomes destructive. Satan loves to take routine desires and turn them into runaway desires. You are consumed, obsessed by it: food, work, having fun, sex, money.
The second step is deception. "He is drawn away and enticed ..." - v.14
James uses a couple of terms from the sports world.
The word " drawn away" is a hunter's term which literally means "snared in a trap".
"Enticed" is a fisherman's term which means "lured by bait".
The secret of great fishing is in the bait. The right kind of bait for the right kind of fish.
How many fish will you catch with a bare hook? You've got to put bait on it. And the right kind of bait for the right kind of fish.
What kind of bait does the devil use on you? He knows your hot button. He knows your weakness. He knows you inside and out.
He knows what turns you on. He knows what you will fall for. He hides his hook in his bait and the bait appeals to your weakness.
The crazy thing is that often we see the hook and we know it's a temptation but we keep right on nibbling.
People say to me, "Bill, back off. I know what I'm doing. I'm an adult. I'm not going to get hurt. I know how far to go." And that person is deceived.
They've gone to step two -- from desire to deception.
It always starts with the desire. Then Satan moves to deception. Temptation always looks better than it really is.
Desire turns to deception and deception turns to disobedience.
Disobedience. "Then after desire has conceived it gives birth to sin." - v.15
What begins in your mind results in an action. It starts in your imagination. The battle starts with your thoughts.
It moves from your thoughts into actions. First the devil gets your attention then he gets you to have an attitude then he gets you to commit the action.
Disobedience then leads to Death. "Sin, when full grown gives birth to death." - v.15
That's the tragic consequences of giving in. That's what losing the battle causes -- devastating results.
What is death? The exact opposite of living. If you overcome temptation you get the crown of life.
4. Be Refocused
If temptation begins with our inner thoughts then changing what we think about is the key to overcoming it.
The key to overcoming temptation is not to fight temptation but simply refocus your thoughts.
Change your attention. Turn your attention on something else. Shift your thoughts. Change your mind. Refocus.
Instead of looking at what you're being tempted by, just look somewhere else. Refocus.
Phil 4:8 And now, dear friends, let me say one more thing as I close this letter. Fix your thoughts on what is true and honorable and right. Think about things that are pure and lovely and admirable. Think about things that are excellent and worthy of praise. (NLT)
Focus your mind on the goodness of God. Why? Because the more you fight a feeling the more it grabs you. Don't focus on what you don't want. Focus on what you do want.
5. Be Reborn - v.18
James 1:18 Of His own will He brought us forth by the word of truth, that we might be a kind of firstfruits of His creatures. (NKJ)
The single most important principle in breaking bad habits and getting control of your life is to let God have control of it.
Get Him in your life so He can start changing your character. Being born again gives you a new capacity to resist temptation.
You don't have enough power in your own will power. That's why you keep falling. You need some supernatural power. You need Jesus Christ in your life.
That's what it means to be reborn. It means you get a fresh start on life. Ask Christ in.
Ask Him to make the changes and give you the power you need to do what you know is right to do anyway. You will not be able to say no to temptation until you first learn to say yes to God.
You need His power in your life. You need to not only be redirected and these other things but you need to be reborn. That's the starting point. Then you'll have more than just your own power.
I Corinthians 10:13, "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 you can stand up under it."
“So the Word became human and made his home among us. He was full of unfailing love and faithfulness. And we have seen his glory, the glory of the Father’s one and only Son.”
John 1:14 NLT
A theological college in the United States ..... invited to their annual conference, ..... a renowned professor as their ..... guest lecturer. He spoke for two and one-half hours ..... "establishing proofs" ..... that the resurrection of Jesus .... never took place. The professor quoted scholar after scholar and book after book. He concluded that since there was no such thing as.... the historical resurrection, ..... the religious tradition of the church .... was groundless. It was all emotional mumbo-jumbo, ..... because it was based on a relationship with a risen Jesus, who, in fact, ...... never rose from the dead in any literal sense. After this verbal dissertation he moved back from the lectern and asked if there were any questions. After about 30 seconds, ..... an elderly pastor with a head of woolly white hair ...... stood up in the back of the auditorium.
"Doctor Professor,.... I have one question", he said ..... as all eyes turned toward him.
He reached into his sack lunch .... and pulled out an apple and began eating it.
CRUNCH, "My question is a simple question",....CRUNCH, ...... "Now, I have never read those books you've read"...CRUNCH,... "And I can't recite the Scriptures in the original Greek"...CRUNCH,... "I know nothing' about Niebuhr and Heidegger"....CRUNCH, ...He finished the apple. "
All I want to know is: ..... This apple I just ate------was it bitter or was it sweet?"
The professor paused for a moment and answered in a scholarly fashion: ..... "I cannot possibly answer that question, .... for I haven't tasted your apple".
The elderly preacher dropped the core of his apple into his crumpled paper bag, ..... looked up at the professor and said calmly, .... "Neither have you tasted .... my Jesus."
The 1,000 plus in attendance could not contain themselves; ..... the auditorium erupted with applause and cheers.
The professor thanked his audience and promptly left the platform. (Pause)
Unlike many people who receive Jesus late in life I received Jesus on my mom's knee at a very young age. It's all I've ever known and believed. I've known no other religion or belief. Jesus is part of my whole life. I love Him with my whole heart.
When you think about how much God loves us and that He sent His own son - Jesus (who was God also) to earth to be among us - that is absolutely amazing. God lives with us! Think about that.
Look how Paul speaks of this in Philippians...
“Think of yourselves the way Christ Jesus thought of himself. He had equal status with God but didn’t think so much of himself that he had to cling to the advantages of that status no matter what. Not at all. When the time came, he set aside the privileges of deity and took on the status of a slave, became human! Having become human, he stayed human. It was an incredibly humbling process. He didn’t claim special privileges. Instead, he lived a selfless, obedient life and then died a selfless, obedient death—and the worst kind of death at that—a crucifixion.” Philippians 2:5-8 MSG
What God did for us - it is mind boggling. God became human and lived amongst us!
Booker T. Washington was born a slave and later became one of the great educators of our country after the emancipation. He headed the Tuskegee Institute, which flourished under his leadership. In his autobiography, Up from Slavery, he tells a story about his brother: “The most trying ordeal that I was forced to endure as a slave boy. . . was the wearing of a flax shirt. In the portion of Virginia where I lived, it was common to use flax as part of the clothing for the slaves. That part of the flax from which our clothing was made was largely the refuse, which of course was the cheapest and roughest part. I can scarcely imagine any torture, except, perhaps, the pulling of a tooth, that is equal to that caused by putting on a new flax shirt for the first time. It is almost equal to the feeling that one would experience if he had a dozen or more chestnut burrs, or a hundred small pin-points, in contact with his flesh. . . . But I had no choice. I had to wear the flax shirt or none. . . . My brother John, who is several years older than I am, performed one of the most generous acts that I ever heard of one slave relative doing for another. On several occasions when I was being forced to wear a new flax shirt, he generously agreed to put it on in my stead and wear it for several days, till it was ‘broken in.’”
Jesus Christ is our elder brother who has come alongside of us to take on the roughness of the world on our behalf. He has put on our shirt — experienced what we experienced, walked where we have walked, and eased the pain of life. He is willing to place our suffering and pain on his own back.
As I write this, I am again amazed with wonder and thankful, so thankful, that God loved me and you so much that He came to live among us. Think about that. Let it amaze and fill you with wonder. Be thankful and glad in your heart for the amazing thing that God has done for the whole world.
Have you tasted my Jesus?
