Well, lets make sure we have the right crowd today. Were talking about temptation. Wait to raise your hands, but how many of you have ever had an area-maybe its an attitude that you cant get the best of; temper that you cant seem to get a handle on; it might be laziness. It could be some other temptation, vice, or habit that youve formed, and it just seems like no matter how many self-help techniques youve tried, how many times youve watched Dr. Phil or whatever books youve read, you cant seem to break the habit, and its just discouraging and defeating to you sometimes. Let me see your hands. All right. Look around and see who didnt have their hands up; they have lying issues (congregation laughing), so we know where were coming from. We do try different techniques. Sometimes they work effectively, and sometimes they dont; but it seems like we always struggle with temptation. All of us do-of various kinds. Before we get in to the Word this morning, were gonna watch a video about struggling with temptation, and youll laugh because in it youll see yourself. Lets go ahead and watch (Video is called, Mr. Accountability. You can find the link here: http://skitguys.com/videos/item/mr-accountability/) This (Pastor is holding a cupcake) is going to represent our temptations that we give in to, that we take a bite of. This is going to represent that area thats giving you the most problems, causing you the most grief and guilt. Were going to talk about how to get victory over that this morning. Lets open our Bibles up to James 1 (page 1196 of pew Bibles), and lets begin together. The Gospel According to Jim, we will be going through it every week chapter by chapter, verse by verse. Verse 13, When tempted… Stop right there. James says when tempted. He doesnt say if tempted, should you be tempted, you might be tempted; he says when tempted. Temptation is something that is common to the human experience. Even Jesus was tempted. The Bible says He was tempted in all things as we are, yet without sin. So when tempted, no one should say, God is tempting me. For God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He tempt anyone… In fact, not only does temptation not come from God, God also provides a cap, the Bible says. In 1 Corinthians 13, it says that God is faithful and will not allow you to be tempted beyond that what you can bear, but with the temptation will provide a way of escape. He wrote that to the church in Corinth. The church in Corinth, in that community, worshipped the goddess Aphrodite. Aphrodite was the goddess of love and sexuality, so there was a lot of idol worship. It was their culture; it was the norm. He said, Listen, God will help you. God will enable you. This temptation is not uncommon. The children of Israel fought temptations for idol worship and compromise and sensuality. The same God that was with them is with you, and God will provide a way of escape. There is a supernatural element to resisting temptation that is important, so you dont have to conform to your culture, Paul was saying to the Corinthians. You see, because you and I can conform, but what we cannot do for ourselves is we cannot be transformed. That takes the power of God. …but each one of you is tempted when, by his own evil desire, he is dragged away and enticed. Are there any outdoorsmen or women here today? You like to fish or hunt? Let me see your hands. Okay. If youd been listening to this and you were Greek, you would understand what he was talking about because he uses the word for a fisherman and a hunter. He uses the word for bait, lure, and for a trap. He says, If youre trying to hunt a mouse, you dont put a Hostess cupcake in there. You put cheese. If youre trying to hook a fish, you have to put a worm or some other kind of lure on there. Youre going to put what they want out there. So the way temptation works is it preys on our desires or all things we desire. You might desire wealth, or you might desire a position or a person, and you will do whatever it takes to acquire that. Youll compromise, and youll lie. Youll cheat or whatever it is because you think, If I just have that… Madison Avenue says, You know, were going to play on those desires. It makes you think unless you have these certain clothes to wear, this hairdo, drive this car, take these kinds of vacations, or live in this kind of a house, you arent going to be successful. You have to have these in order to be successful, so they prey on our desire to spend money we dont have to buy what we cannot afford because of the value we think it will bring to our lives. Madison Avenue, too, preys on our desire, so that is the key. The key is going to be desire. What do we do about that desire because the old rule is if its not broken, dont fix it. Because this always works, this is how temptation always works. Its how the enemy works. He preys on our desires. He tempts us with things that we want. Verse 15, Then, after desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, gives birth to death. Desire comes; desire beats temptation; we give in to the desire; sin is conceived; and sin leads to death. That is the path. That is the way that it happens. Now weve tried some of these techniques we seen in the video. Some of you have tried to get an accountability partner, a Taser buddy-somebody who is going to come alongside of you. Im not saying thats a bad thing. I think its a good thing. Some of us have said, Listen, Im struggling with this area here, and Im asking you to help me. If youre a guy, your accountability partner should be another guy; if youre a lady, it should be a lady. You open up, you take a risk, and you say, Heres what Im struggling with. Im struggling with gossip. Im struggling with unforgiveness. Im struggling with anger. Im struggling with lust. Im struggling with greed. Im struggling with honesty. Whatever it is, you tell them what youve done, as James says, Confess your sins from one to another. Its a relational approach. Youre using community, and it can be effective. Its a worthwhile pursuit. You say, You have permission to ask me hard questions. Im not going to keep any secrets from you. Lets say for instance a person has problems with the internet. They have a program now where you can have an internet buddy, so they see every place you go, every site. Rather than blocking them, they get a report of every site youve visited, so there is accountability there. Thats a good thing. So to have that accountability, we strongly recommend that relational technique. Others of us have tried certain physical techniques, tried to remove temptation from our lives. If you are a person who likes to overeat, you say, Well, Im just not going to go to buffets anymore. Im making that a rule. No more buffets for me because I cant seem to control myself when I go. Or you are have a drinking problem, so you say, Im not going to go to bars anymore. Im just not. You might remove something from your life thats giving you a problem. Somebody who has problems with the internet might remove the internet from their home. There might be something else that they own thats a struggle or it could be a person. Maybe theres a negative person in your life, and it seems like theyre always bringing you down. They gossip all the time, so when you hang around with them, you become a negative gossiper. You say, I have to stop hanging around with this person so often. Parents will do this when Junior comes home and has a bad attitude. You find out hes been hanging around with the wrong buddies. You say, Youre not allowed to hang around with those kids anymore. Theyre a bad influence on you. Theyre starting to turn you into the person you dont want to be, so you cut that off as a parent. This physical approach-we purge and remove influences from our lives-that can be an effective way to battle temptation. Thats a good thing. So he physically removed the cupcake, got rid of the cupcake-he couldnt quite do that, right? Its purging us from those areas of temptation. Others of us have tried mental techniques. We say, The battle is in our mind, so we read self-help books. We watch Dr. Phil on TV or whatever it is. Were going to figure this thing out, so there are certain memory devices. There is thought-replacement. Lets say I say, Dont think of pink elephants. So everybody is thinking of pink elephants, but if I say, When you think of pink elephants, let you trigger you to think of the number eight. Youre using that as transition, so people say, Okay, when this temptation comes, let that trigger a verse or something else thats positive. Instead of thinking on that negative, your mind turns. Well, thats a good technique. Others of you might know other techniques. Paul says, Whatever is lovely and good, think on that. Theres nothing wrong with having mental techniques, trying to win the battle of the mind. Thats very good. Theres nothing wrong with that at all. But why is it that you could have the best accountability partner, the best mental techniques, try your best to purge and remove bad influence from your life and still yield to temptation? Why? Because none of those things addressed the biggest problem. Whats the biggest problem we have according to James when it comes to temptation? The biggest problem we have is desire. See, if you have all the right techniques, but you still have the same desire, youll get around those techniques. Youll get around that accountability buddy. You can find what it is youre looking for. You forget that memory mental technique in the heat of temptation. These are all physical things that we do. These are all natural things that we do-getting a friend, battle of our minds, physically removing temptation. Those are all physical. What we need more than anything else-and not that we should get rid of those things; we shouldnt-but what we need more than anything else is supernatural intervention, spiritual intervention where God does something for us we cannot do for ourselves. Only God can change our desires. Only God can change your heart. You look pretty presentable this morning. Im looking around, and I see some nice hairdos. I hope you brushed your teeth, showered, and put on some deodorant. Youve all put on clothes. Thats good. Some of the guys have shaved. You look presentable. You could even care for certain owies and boo-boos, right? You could put band-aids on. Other people have even put tourniquets on themselves. I tell you what though-if you have a heart attack, you wont be able to do resuscitation on yourself, will you? You wont be able to do chest compressions on yourself. If your artery is clogged, youre not going to say, Hey, Bill. What are you doing? Oh, just doing a little angioplasty on myself. Ill be right with you. Its not going to happen. You need outside intervention. In the same way, we can conform externally, but we cannot transform internally. What God does is God does not remove desire. God changes desires, and thats the key-nip this in the bud, nip temptation in the bud. Lets turn to 1 John 1:7 (page 1207 in pew Bibles). John is writing, and he says, But if we walk in the light, as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus, His Son, purifies us from all sin. Is that natural or supernatural? The blood of Christ cleansing you from sin-is that something you do? No, thats something that Christ does. If we claim to be without sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us. If you name the name of Christ today, you still have a sin nature. You still struggle with a sin nature-every one of us. If we confess our sins… And, by the way, this word confess is a loaded word. It doesnt mean simply mumbling or repeating what we have done. Its much more than that. The word confession implies that there is brokenness. The word confession implies that there is repentance. The word repentance means to change your mind, literally to change your direction. Youve been going one way; youre going to go another way, and part of that is because of sorrow-not sorrow you were caught, but sorrow you committed the act, sorrow that thats a part of you. That is involved with repentance. This word confession comes from two Greek words: homo and logeo (homologeo)-same word. So confession means to be in agreement with God or say the same thing that God says about our sin. When we see our sin for what it is and we see it for what it has done, the pain it has caused ourselves, the pain it has caused others, we become broken; and we confess it to God. We say, God, here is what I have done. The Bible says when we do that, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and purify us from unrighteousness. That is supernatural. Only God can forgive sins, and only God can cleanse. Only God can change the heart. When I was a young man in high school, I had some habits, attitudes, and behaviors that were destructive. They were giving me poor self-esteem. I knew they were destructive for the way I treated my family, my academics, and my future. I was getting ready to graduate, and I felt like I wasnt prepared. I was concerned because these habits had a grip on me. I tried every technique under the sun, and I could not break them. I tried the physical approach and accountability. I tried everything, and I was frustrated because I was just defeated time and time again. I left the factory I was at early that day. I was working and asked my boss if I could leave. He said I could, and I went down and bought a book called, When You Graduate. It was a spiritual book. I was not a believer; I was not a Christian though I attended church. I thought the Bible was the most boring book ever written. I thought church was the most boring place that you could go. I liked our pastor, but I didnt know how he did that Sunday after Sunday because I sure couldnt. The Christian friends at church-nerds. I wanted nothing to do with them-boring, so here I am in this park at a picnic table not believing in God, and I said, God, if You really are there, I have made a mess of my life. I have done things Im ashamed of, and I cant get free. I cant rid myself of these habits and these attitudes. God, if youre really there, help me. Forgive me. Change me from the inside out. I want to tell you something. Fireworks didnt off, but I got up from that table with a feeling of being cleansed inside that I cant naturally explain to you; but I will tell you this: the temptations that I had-and it wasnt cupcakes, by the way-didnt look good anymore. I never went back to those habits. Now other ones have taken their place. Thats the way it is with life, and thats why we never get to the point where we say, Okay, Ive arrived, because there is always something. The Bible says, If we confess. Some of us dont want to confess. Some of us like our sin. We like our unforgiveness or theres a thrill that that affair gives a person. Theres an excitement to that lifestyle. Theres contentment or a familiarity factor, Im just comfortable with it. I dont really want to change. If we confess… Sometimes believers dont want to confess. We like our lifestyle the way it is. We like those habits that we have formed, but I came to the point where I didnt want that anymore, and it didnt look appetizing to me anymore. You see, when God changes desires, He does it in two different ways. The first way is God changes that desire so that which once looked appealing… Remember, James says temptation is drawn by desire to bait or lure, so what it is that entices us becomes the bait. Our desire acts upon it, so if that no longer is desirous to us, then temptation loses its effectiveness. Thats what God did for me. Thats how He changed my life, so now the Bible became exciting. I began to desire it. What the world had to offer didnt look desirous anymore. Now, imagine hypothetically that you could see sin for what it is. You had these spiritual X-ray eyes. You were able to see these visions of what sin would become in your life, this maturity process that James talks about-that it leads to death. Somehow in your eyes, you could see that. What would that do to your habits, attitudes, and actions if you could see sin for what it is or see the consequences that it holds? Do any of you here today like French fries? Any French fry junkies? The number one thing that is sold in restaurants in America is not pizza; its not burgers. Its French fries. We buy and eat more French fries than any other food. People will tell you French fries arent good for you. Theyre greasy; theyre salty. Theyre bad for your heart, cholesterol and all that stuff, so because I have a weakness for French fries, I try not to eat them often. I remember being at a restaurant and thinking, Im just going to get a soup or a salad. I was in an area that Im not normally in, a restaurant that Im not normally in, and a plate of fries went by. I went, Oh, I like that kind. I didnt know they had that kind. If it had been the seasoned kind or the wedge kind, I could have done without it, but thats my favorite kind of fry, because we all have our favorite kind, right? Cottage fries or steak fries or the stringy fries, whatever it is you like. I thought, Well, maybe just today. Since Im not in this restaurant very often, I think Ill have the fries. Or you go in a restaurant and say, Im not going to have a dessert. Im not going to have dessert. Im cutting back. Something walks by your table, and you say, Oh, what was that? I was in a restaurant having a dessert this week, and a lady across the table goes, Oh, what is that? I said, Its a chocolate chip cookie pizza. She goes, Reeeallly? I said to her and her friend, Would you like to have a bite? I have not eaten it yet, and I have two spoons. I will give you a bite, so she came over to my table and took a big bite (congregation laughing). Shes like, Oh, this is delicious. This is the best! Ill have to remember this next time Im here. So we say, Oh, whats that Maybe Ill just get some of that. Ill share. Ill just have a little bit. We play these little games with ourselves. So what if you order those fries, you order those desserts, and it comes onto your table in our little illustration here that enables us to see our bad behaviors for what they are and what they will produce? All the sudden those fries smell great, theyre hot. They look good, and all of the sudden they turn to what they will become on your body. What if they turn to blubbery fat right there? Youve all seen that, right? Youve watched liposuction specials or something. You know what fat looks like? Its yellow and its globby. I dont want to elaborate because I dont want to ruin my Hostess cupcake, but its just not pleasant. All of the sudden, you see what those fries will be, not what they are, but what they will become if you eat them. Youre like, Oh! Youre disgusted! Youre repulsed by it! Then magically, you see the fries again. They start smelling good and looking good. Do you still want those, or do you go, Ahh! Can you bring me a salad instead please? Its changed your desire. When it changes your desire, you dont want to eat it anymore. Lets say its the weekend, and youve been working hard. Youre going to get away with your buddies. You guys are going to a bar, and youre going to drink. Youve decided in advance youre going to tie one on because youve had a long week. You deserve some fun, so Im just going to start drinking until I want to stop. Thats your idea of a good time. That's your idea of fun. Youre with your pals, youre drinking beers, and life is good. Youre telling jokes; everything is funny. You pick up that beer bottle, and you start to drink it. As youre ready to pour that first drink in your mouth, you see a reflection of yourself in that beer bottle. Its not just of you drinking. Remember in this illustration, we see sin for what it does. You look in that beer bottle, and you see yourself getting a DUI afterwards. You see yourself passing out on the floor. You see yourself in the morning throwing up. You see the headache, the hangover youre going to have. In that beer bottle, you see the fool youre about to make of yourself when you have one too many. You see the toll its going to take on your marriage when you come home drunk again, and you say, Oh. You put the bottle down. Hey, man! Whats going on? Arent you going to drink? Nah. Not tonight, because you saw the consequences. Youre at work, and theyve hired this really pretty lady or this really handsome man. Theyre making goo-goo eyes at you. Youre exchanging pleasantries at the bubbler, and youre like, You look really nice today. So do you! She kind of likes you, so youre talking to her. The next thing you know, youre making plans to go to a hotel. Youre going to have an affair. Just as you ready to kiss him or her on the mouth, you look in those eyes, and you see the pain on your spouses face. You see the pain this is going to cause you in the future, and you pull back and say, Oh, I cant do it. It doesnt look desirous anymore. If you take away desire, temptation loses its punch. It loses its power. Thats what God will do. God says, You come to Me in brokenness and sincerity and you confess your sin, you are in agreement with Me. With your mouth, you confess your sin. With a broken heart and a sincere spirit, do you know what Ill do? I will forgive you, and I will cleanse you. That's the fourth supernatural element where God takes away desire. All those other things that we do in the natural, theyre helpful. We should continue to do them, but they dont get to the heart of the matter. The heart of the matter, I can teach you, but I cant manufacture it in your life. It has to be the work of the Spirit of God, the gift of grace, as He works in our hearts to not just remove but to change that desire. The second action that happens is God not only says, Okay, this no longer looks good. I see this for what it is, and I see the consequences, and I dont desire that anymore, but He begins to help us to see the rewards. He begins to change our desire so that we want good things. I can remember the Bible became exciting to me at age 17. I couldnt get enough of it. The nerds, I saw they were good kids-honest, hard-working, decent young people-that I should want to spend time with and did want to spend time with from that time on. I began to want to go to church. I began to want to serve the Lord. I started saying, Mom, I think I want to go to a school where they teach the Bible. Then down the road, Mom, I think I want to go to a school and become a pastor like our pastor. I began to just enjoy the rewards of that changed attitude. I began to treat my family better, treat my friends better. I felt better about myself. Things went better in school. My future became clear. My boss said, Hey, when youre out of school, we want you to come back and be a pastor at our church. I already had a job. I met a wonderful lady who Id later marry in a couple years. Life just began to come together. Not that I didnt have problems or not that I didnt struggle with temptation still, but I began to enjoy the reward of what God was doing in my life. When I was 18 years old, I wasnt married. I didnt even know if Id ever get married at that age. Youre trying to stay pure and do the right thing, so Id read Psalm 119 a lot in devotional times. Psalm 119:97 (page 610 of pew Bibles), David says, Oh, how I love your law! I meditate on it all day long. Your commands make me wiser than my enemies, for they are ever with me. I have more insight than all my teachers, for I meditate on Your statutes. I have more understanding than the elders, for I obey Your precepts. I have kept my feet from every evil path so that I might obey Your Word. He starts looking at his life, and because God changed his desires, now what? He says, I have insight. I have wisdom. I have understanding. This is preventing me from making wrong choices and going down wrong paths. He said, I have not departed from Your laws, for You Yourself have taught me. How sweet are Your words to my taste, sweeter than honey to my mouth! I gain understanding from Your precepts; therefore I hate every wrong path. Sweeter than this Hostess cupcake. He said, I start to desire the things of God, so God will change our desires or redirect them. Then we start to enjoy the rewards, and we start to reap the consequences of those right behaviors and those right decisions, but you have to be careful. You have to be careful. Remember that verse we read where it said confess. In the Greek, thats in whats called the active voice-that word confess homologeo, active voice. You could translate it this way, Keep on confessing. Keep on confessing. Its the present active-the present tense, active voice. Why do we have to keep on confessing? Because we keep on…sinning because were stuck with this sin nature. David, later in his life, became careless and things did not go well. He yielded to temptation later in his life. Thats the way life is. Did I talk about being a homeowner in this service and just thinking if I built a house, I wouldnt have to do anything for the next 15 years? Did I talk about that here? Well, thats what I thought. I thought, If I just build a house… Because when youre renting, theres always something to fix and do, but if I just built a house, then I could just kick back and relax for 15 to 20 years. You wouldnt have anything to do. And its been non-stop for 18 years. This starts to leak, and you fix that leak. This breaks, and you fix that break. This wears out; this has to be changed. That's the way it is in your home. There is always something going on, right? In the ministry, maybe its the finances, so we work on the budget. We get that fixed, and we have this shortage in childrens ministry, so we work on that. Boy, we need volunteers in the childrens ministry. Then theres this fire over here, and we work on putting that fire out. There is another problem. A couple years later, now theres another financial downturn. There is always something to work on. The same thing is true in our spiritual walk. There is always something we are working on, right? You have a bad temper, so you work on that. You give that to God. You try these techniques-accountability and all of that. You start to get a handle on your temper. Youre not swearing, and youre not throwing things or hitting things. Youre really getting a handle on that, but now your wifes saying youre not spending any time with her; and your marriage is really struggling. So, Oh, I have to spend more time with my wife, so youre spending more time with your spouse. Then Junior starts acting up because Junior isnt getting enough attention, so you start to say, Well, I have to spend more time with my kid. Then as youre spending time with your family, your boss says, Hey, youre not doing your job here. Youre not giving us 100 percent, so you start focusing on that. In the workplace, in life, so it is in our sin nature. Well deal with gluttony and start getting a handle on that. The next thing we know, we encounter laziness. We start working on that, and the next thing you know, its lust. You start working on that, and the next thing we have honesty issues all of the sudden. But what I want to share is not that we reach the point of perfection, but whatever this little cupcake represents to you that youve taken a bite of… You just say, I just feel guilty. Ive experienced the consequences. I want to change, but I cant. I want you to know you can today. Ultimately, its not going to come from those good things. Good things, though, they are-the natural. Its going to come from the supernatural. The supernatural involves all those things. Its mental. When we confess our sins, its mental because it involves repentance-changing our mind. Its physical-were confessing with our mouth. Its relational because were talking to God, but its also, fourthly, supernatural. God, Im promising You. If you say, I want to get rid of this. I want to remove this, and you come to the Lord with faith and confess, God will change your desire. There is hope. He will do for you what you cannot do for yourself. You can conform; but you cannot transform, and He is in the transforming business. Shall we look to Him in prayer this morning: Father in Heaven, we thank You for the work of the Spirit in our lives. We thank You for the fact that though we are a work under construction, You never quit. You never give up. Philippians 1:6 says that He who began a good work in you will be faithful to complete it. So, Lord, were thankful that construction is ongoing in our lives, that we can cooperate with that work or we can work against it. Sometimes as John says, If we confess, sometimes we dont want to confess. We enjoy our attitudes, our lifestyles, our sins. We become comfortable with it. Its become a friend like this cupcake was to the man in the video. Lord, help us to see our sin for what it is, to see the destruction that it has caused or will cause in our lives, the pain it will cause others, and the heartache it will cause us as well. Lord, were thankful for friends who we can be accountable to. Were thankful for the techniques, the battle of the mind that we need to win. Were thankful for the steps that people take-the brave and courageous steps-that they shall continue to take to remove and purge their lives of wrong influences. Lord, more than anything else, we need the work of Your Spirit. We need the touch of grace-that You would change our desire; that we would begin to see sin for what it is and begin to see the rewards that come from living a life that pleases You; and that we will yield ourselves and say, May the blood of Jesus purify me from sin. Might the Spirit of Christ cleanse my heart and mind, that I might desire the things of God. In Jesus name we pray, Amen.