Beat Temptation

Good morning.

Man, that was awesome, wasn't it?

Well, today's April 1st, and Chase texted me a uh great idea for an April Fool's joke, which had to do with us only using the King James version King James Version from now on.

But I just gonna do it.

But next Sunday is Easter.

It's gonna be a great morning.

I love Easter for all the obvious reasons, but also it's just that uh it's one of those days where all of us are here on the same Sunday, and the worship is gonna be fantastic.

It's just gonna be a great day.

Um as you know, we're just meeting uh one time at 10 a.m.

You'll want to get here early.

We'll have a lot more kids to check in and that type of thing.

Um if we'll have people parking at Lowe's, and so if you can and don't mind doing that, come a little early and and walk over.

Uh that will be great.

But it's gonna be a great day next week.

Be sure and invite everybody you know.

Uh on that note, we could use five or six guys to help us roll out uh the extra chairs.

Um we're not gonna set them out today, but we're just gonna roll out the stacks, and Roy Shellnut's gonna be back by the sound booth afterwards.

And so if you can help there, uh meet him afterwards.

Last Wednesday was the last night of this session of groups and classes.

It seemed to go by really fast.

And this uh is the first is the spring break week.

And so the high school group's not meeting this Wednesday, and so in other words, there won't be anything happening at the building uh this Wednesday night.

Motorcycle group meets in room two today after uh after we're done in here.

It's a great time of the year to ride and get a little rain, wash the pollen out.

Um so if you enjoy riding, uh hook up with the motorcycle group.

And they do a lot of other things besides ride, a lot of things to help out in a lot of different ways.

And one of those is a uh there's a group within the motorcycle group that goes out into the prisons and and meets with uh with people there.

And so if you'd like to be part of that, uh this would be a good time to uh check out the group uh again that's in room two afterwards today.

I want to quickly let you know what's coming up in May, because that's uh getting here so fast.

May 6th is one of the best Sundays of the year because that's Baptism Sunday.

And that's gonna be uh a big event for for many of us.

Um you know, if you don't know, baptism isn't some stuffy old tradition, it is a Holy Spirit energized I'm all in statement.

Um I'm going new from here, and it's just a great, great day.

And so if uh you're thinking about getting a baptized plan on May 6th, and then we'll talk about that more as we get closer.

Uh May 13th is Mother's Day.

We got great moms here, so you all deserve a day for sure.

And then just to balance out the estrogen, uh May 20th is bless the bikes.

And so uh that's also we got a lot of people that ride here, and uh and we have got friends that ride, and so we'll all ride in and and have kind of a typical uh Sunday, and then afterwards we'll go out and eat and and hang out and uh especially uh pray for everyone.

And uh so that'll be a great day.

All right, let's pray.

Our Father, we just praise you and we we thank you for adopting us as your very own children, allowing us to call you Abba, Daddy, Father, Holy Spirit, we thank you for being our teacher, and we ask you to teach us each this morning that we would each go away with something that we know was directly from you to us.

And Jesus, we thank you for saving us, being our friend, being our Lord, and for teaching us to pray.

So we praise you and thank you in Jesus' name.

Amen.

So today is the last of a few weeks that we've been spending looking at a prayer that, as we've said, has literally changed the world.

Uh in a lot of different ways.

It changed people's perception of God, explained a whole new relationship with God, and it changed how we talk with God.

Jesus says, pray like this, and then he teaches us, and we call it the Lord's Prayer.

Jesus starts a prayer with our Father, and he uses the Aramaic word Abba.

We translated our Father, but it means daddy.

You know, in the countries around the world in the Middle East, really, that still speak Aramaic, it's one of the first words that a little child learns.

Abba, daddy.

And God is that dad, that daddy to us, the dad that's described in the prodigal son, where the son really humiliates his father and goes as far as he possibly can and wastes what his dad has given him.

But when he turns to go home, he sees his dad running to him, embracing him, restoring him, loving him.

That's the Abba that we get to pray to.

And if there's one thing that kind of has been a good reminder for me thinking about this, is just how simple really our relationship is to God.

How it's a daddy and a child, and how simple it is to talk to God, how we could all uh pray, that we don't need to impress God with our spirituality, we definitely don't need to impress each other with our spirituality.

We can simply talk as a child to our loving dad.

So in Matthew 6, Jesus says, pray like this Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy, may your kingdom come soon, may your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

Today we're gonna look at that final sentence.

And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

We all fight temptation.

It's a great reason for us not to uh play church, you know, pretending that we have it all together.

Growing up, I was in a church environment where everybody did seem to have it all together.

Then all of a sudden, there'd be be these big calamities out of nowhere.

You know, one Sunday, the couple's the happiest couple in the world.

The next Sunday, they're getting divorced.

You know, one Sunday business is going great, next Sunday, they're going out of business.

You know, big calamities, drug arrests.

People didn't ask for help as they were going until it was too late and it was, it was out of control.

And not only that, but if we were struggling, we thought we were the only ones.

We thought everybody else had it together, everybody else's life was great.

I was the only one that was having a tough time with temptations or just a tough time or hard things in life.

But we all have struggles.

And God's attitude on our struggles and temptations is a little bit different than most of us have learned.

He is not sitting back as a judge waiting to see if we're gonna pass or if we're gonna fail, waiting to see if we're gonna blow it or not.

He is our daddy.

He wants to help.

So don't let us yield to temptation, is the prayer.

Temptations come in a lot of forms, as we know.

You know, there are thoughts or desires or anything that would distract us or derail us from being everything that God has created us to be.

You know, and as a quick aside, you know, God isn't as uptight as we might think.

You know, he wants us to enjoy our lives, just like Susan said.

And he's created all kinds of pleasure and fun that is part of who he is as he created us.

You know, sexual stuff's a big temptation.

The Song of Solomon is a very sexual book.

You know, in the Bible, God created sex.

He put it in a framework of marriage.

Um He wants to be part of all of our lives.

And this may seem like a strange thought, but in your marriage, if your sex life isn't everything you'd want it to be, it's a great thing to pray about.

God cares about everything.

And in the right context, it's beautiful.

And God uses it as a metaphor for intimacy with Him.

Your partying in many forms is a temptation.

The truth is, God loves a great party.

There are many more feast days in the Old Testament than there were fasting days.

In Deuteronomy 14, it says, Now when the Lord your God blesses you with a good harvest, the place of worship he chooses for his name to be honored might be too far for you to bring the tithe.

If so, you may sell the tithe portion of your crops and herds, put the money in a pouch, and go to the place the Lord your God has chosen.

When you arrive, you may use the money to buy any kind of food you want, cattle, sheep, goats, wine, or other alcoholic drink, then feast there in the presence of the Lord your God and celebrate with your household.

God likes a good party.

Jesus' first miracle was symbolic of a marriage proposal in the Jewish culture.

In the Jewish culture, the groom would place a glass of wine before the bride, and if she drank, it was her saying yes.

And so Jesus makes 180 gallons of the best wine ever tasted, saying, I love you, to the world.

I want to be with all of you, to everyone.

Jesus was famous or infamous for eating and drinking with all kinds of people.

God enjoys a party within a framework of moderation and freedom.

God is not asking us to live some puritanical lifestyle where all we ever do is read the Bible and pray.

What he's asking us is not to destroy ourselves or anybody else.

He's asking us not to derail ourselves from who he created us to be.

He's asking us not to allow Satan to steal from us what he gives us.

He's asking us not to create problems for ourselves, but instead keep ourselves in a place where we can enjoy life, we can enjoy our families, we can enjoy our friendships, and we can enjoy God.

Wouldn't it be nice to have a life that was full of joy?

Jesus had more joy than any man who ever lived on earth.

We think about him being a man of sorrows, but those were just small segments of his life.

Jesus was a man that enjoyed life, that he was full of joy.

And Hebrews 1 says, But to the Son he says, Your throne, O God, endures forever and ever.

You rule with a scepter of justice.

You love justice and hate evil.

Therefore, O God, your God has anointed you, pouring out the oil of joy on you more than on anyone else.

Jesus was tempted in all ways just like us.

But you know, he didn't give in, and ultimately that led to great joy.

Jesus tells us in John 15, I've told you these things for a purpose, that my joy might be your joy, and your joy wholly mature.

And part of that is the end of this prayer.

And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one is when we give in to temptation, as we've probably all experienced, it stills our joy.

It takes our joy.

And first John says, For the world offers only a craving for physical pleasure, a craving for everything we see, and pride in our achievements and possessions.

These are not from the Father, but are from this world.

James, who is Jesus' younger brother, he writes, And remember when you're being tempted, do not say God is tempting me.

God is never tempted to do wrong, and he never tempts anyone else.

Temptation comes from our own desires, which entice us and drag us away.

These desires give birth to sinful actions, and when sin is allowed to grow, it gives birth to death.

So we all struggle with different things.

One thing I liked about the uh the worship this morning is that it was uh it was peaceful, and for me, it was kind of introspective.

You know, it's I was it allowed me to be introspective.

And I think this is kind of an introspective morning and an introspective uh topic.

But most of us have two or three things, kind of main things that we're aware of.

You know, they might be high profile things like sexual stuff or addictions, or they might be lower profile, but just as debilitating and destructive, like anger and pride and jealousy and being critical or lying or whatever, you know, whatever it is.

We all have stuff.

We read last week, if we claim we have no sin, we are only fooling ourselves and not living the truth.

But if we confess our sins to Him, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all wickedness.

So, what do we do?

How do we win against temptation?

I thought seriously about showing Mike Mamone's uh God story this morning.

We showed it, I don't know, maybe two and a half years ago.

Um I decided to save it for another time, partly because Mike and his daughter Jen are out of town this morning.

But if you haven't seen Mike's story, it's linked on the website or on the Facebook page.

You could Google Mike Mamone's uh God's story, and it would pop up on YouTube.

But Mike had a tough childhood.

By the time he was a teenager, he was addicted to drugs, he was living on his own.

He ended up in Philadelphia, he got basically kicked out of the city.

I think by then he had a dozen warrants out on him in different uh states.

He had a sister that lived in Woodstock, so he started walking from Philadelphia to Woodstock.

After a while, he found a tent-to-speed bike and he rode the bike the rest of the way here.

Eventually he ended up living in an upside-down dumpster in downtown Atlanta, high on crack every day.

He's walking along the interstate, and a guy in a construction van picks him up.

And so Mike, for the first time, for whatever reason, bears his soul to this guy.

He says, I'm a I'm a crack addict.

I'm living in a dumpster.

Every day I say I'm gonna quit.

Every day I use.

My family hates me.

My parents won't talk to me, and the worst thing is I can't even talk to my daughter.

That guy says, Well, I'll take you where you want to go if we can pull over and pray.

That was over eight years ago, and Mike has been clean and sober every minute since.

So now Mike leads our freedom group.

He's a great friend to me.

He's best friends with his ex-wife.

He has a great relationship with his parents.

His daughter, Jen, lives with him, and he's a great dad.

And this morning they're on a motorcycle trip to a clean and sober event down in Sebring, Florida.

Now I tell you this to illustrate an important thing about what Jesus is teaching.

Maybe the most important thing.

When we ask our Abba Father, Daddy Father for help, he has power.

The power that changed Mike's life, the power that changes our lives, the power to win over temptations.

In 1 Corinthians 4 and verse 20, it says, For the kingdom of God is not just a lot of talk, it is living by God's power.

Romans 1 says, For I'm not ashamed of this good news about Christ.

It is the power of God at work, saving everyone who believes.

Romans 8, with the arrival of Jesus, the Messiah, that fateful dilemma is resolved.

Those who enter into Christ being here for us no longer have to live under a continuous, low-lying black cloud.

A new power is in operation.

The spirit of life in Christ, like a strong wind, has magnificently cleared the air, freeing you from a fated lifetime of brutal tyranny at the hands of sin and death.

That's why we can overcome temptations that we've struggled with for years, that have harassed us for years, beat us for years.

It's because God has the power.

It's not because we're strong enough to fight.

And even though we're not maybe strong enough, it doesn't mean we won't win.

We will win.

When we pray, we are simply talking to our dad and asking him to unleash his power in our lives.

That is the absolute key to overcoming temptation.

That's why Jesus says, pray like this and don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

It's because he has the power to answer that prayer.

Following Jesus isn't a belief system.

It is a connection with God and His power.

And that's the key.

Besides that, He gives us some other things that will help us with temptation.

First, accept that our Abba loves us.

So many temptations are derived from our need for love, our need for acceptance, our need for comfort.

When we understand that God really loves us, that we can rest in that, it becomes easier not to look to other people or other things or other substances to find that.

And that's the truth.

God really loves you.

I mean, he really does.

Sometimes it's a that's a hard thing to get.

You know, I mean, for me it was really hard to get.

I could get it up here in my head, but it took me years.

Years to get it into my heart.

That I could rest in that.

I don't need to try to earn his approval.

I can rest in the fact that I am loved.

Completely loved.

That's why we get to call him our Abba Father.

That's the first thing.

The next thing is to pray, just like Jesus instructed here.

Ask our loving Father to help us.

God, I don't want to be like this.

I don't want to be angry.

You know, why am I this jealous?

I don't want to be addicted.

I want to be satisfied and not always wanting something else.

We can pray for ourselves and we can pray for each other.

You know, Mike talks about the guy in the van and how it was the first time he had really told anyone exactly what was going on.

And that is one of our main weapons, if you will, against temptation.

It's praying with each other, for each other.

James 5 says, confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed.

The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results.

You know, the we've got such a great prayer team here.

And when uh Susan or Nathan or Jimmy or whoever is saying, you know, it's time to do the Lord's Supper, and they talk about having prayer at the Lord's Supper, almost always they mention that you know there's really loving people over there to pray with you.

And uh that's so important to have wise, loving people that we can tell what's going on, that we can we can share our struggles with.

I had two kinds of or yeah, I guess two kinds, two times of big watershed type prayer moments at church in my life.

Uh one was I just didn't feel connected to God at all.

And I and I really wanted that, but I but I didn't have it.

And another was something I was struggling with, and and I could not beat it, and I was just uh losing that battle.

And both times.

Both of those moments happened when we were on vacation and we were out of town and we visited a church.

And that wasn't a coincidence.

It's because where we were at, I didn't feel safe to ask for help.

Because, you know, if we admitted the need for help, we're kind of out of the group.

Because it was a everything seems cool type of group.

And part of that was my insecurity, I know.

But it is so important that we have a culture here of being real, that we're all in process, that we all have struggles.

And for us to have that culture, it takes risk.

You know, it takes risk from me to share things I wouldn't normally share.

It takes risk for all of us to be real and open and not feel like we have to pretend that we got everything licked because we all need each other and we all need God's help.

And so we can pick a wise, loving person, share our struggles with them, and pray together.

James says that that has great power and wonderful results.

Another help is found in Romans.

It says, Because we belong to the day, we must live decent lives for all to see.

Don't participate in the darkness of wild parties and drunkenness or in sexual promiscuity and immoral living or in quarreling and jealousy.

Instead, clothe yourselves with the presence of the Lord Jesus Christ and don't let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.

And don't let yourself think about ways to indulge your evil desires.

In 2 Corinthians, it says, we use our powerful God tools for smashing warped philosophies, you know, bad thinking, warped philosophies, tearing down barriers erected against the truth of God, fitting every loose thought and emotion and impulse into the structure of life shaped by Christ.

Now many of us have learned by experience that if we dwell on something, think about something, it's eventually going to go bad.

When we have thoughts that we know aren't God's plan for us, we can recognize it and speak the truth to ourselves.

Some of us have experienced that as soon as you have a thought, it's an eventuality, you think, that you're going to go in, give in.

You know, as soon as you have the thought, you know that somehow that's going to snowball and you're going to give in.

But it doesn't have to be that way.

As soon as we have a thought with God's power, we can seize that thought and speak the truth, you know, to ourselves.

And so it might be, you know, I'd be happier if my spouse just made more money.

You know, that's not really true.

The truth would be I have a good spouse.

Things would be easier if my spouse made more money, but I really wouldn't be any happier.

You know, I'd be fulfilled if I could just have sex with anyone I wanted to.

You know, actually, I wouldn't.

It would cheapen my life and it would cheapen the lives of other people.

I hate my job.

I'm thankful to have a job.

Hopefully, I'll get a better job someday.

But till then, I'm going to work hard with a great attitude now.

I'm going to give that guy a peace of my mind.

He's someone God's love.

He's someone God loves.

I don't know what he's going through, but I'm not perfect.

I'm not going to expect him to be perfect.

We can grab those thoughts and speak the truth before they get out of control.

Two quick final thoughts.

We need to stay on guard.

We got to stay on guard because we're all susceptible to screwing up big time.

In 1 Corinthians 10, it says, if you think you're standing strong, be careful not to fall.

The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience, and God is faithful.

He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand.

When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure.

You know what happens, I think often, and this has been true with me, is that when things are going bad, I'm drawn to God.

You know, I need God.

I need his help.

But when things start going really good, I can become independent of God, you know, and kind of back away a little bit.

But we got to stay close all the time.

You know, we've got to stay on guard because we're all susceptible.

And then the final thought is regardless of your experience with temptation so far, you are going to win.

You are going to win.

Whatever temptation you struggle with, it's going to turn around.

God is going to unleash his power for you.

You will see a way out, and you will take it.

Paul writes a really honest letter to the Thessalonians.

He says he's worried.

He's afraid that they're going to give in to temptations.

It's in 1 Thessalonians 3.

Even while we were with you, we warned you that troubles would soon come, and they did, as you all know.

That is why, when I could bear it no longer, I sent Timothy to find out whether your faith was still strong.

I was afraid that the tempter had gotten the best of you and that our work had been useless.

But now Timothy's just returned, bringing us good news about your faith and love.

He reports that you always remember our visit with joy and that you want to see us as much as we want to see you.

They did it.

They did it.

They had God's power.

They prayed with each other when they struggled.

They took control of their thoughts early.

They stayed on guard.

And they weren't derailed by their temptations.

In fact, they had become known.

They'd become famous for their faith and their love.

We will too.

We will too.

One small prayer changed everything.

Jesus said, Pray like this.

Our Father in heaven, may your name be kept holy, may your kingdom come soon.

May your will be done on earth as it is in heaven.

Give us today the food we need, and forgive us our sins as we have forgiven those who sin against us.

And don't let us yield to temptation, but rescue us from the evil one.

So if the worship team wants to come up, we'll stop there.

What we've done each week as we're we're talking about prayer is taking a minute.

You know, it's one thing to talk about it, it's so much powerful, more powerful to pray.

And so, right now, let's take a minute.

And maybe there's a temptation we struggle with that we can lift up to God.

If not, we can ask the Holy Spirit and maybe He'll show us something we need to stand, you know, on guard for.

But let's take a minute and do that now.

God will answer that prayer.

He is going to answer your prayer.

He's going to give you supernatural power.

He's going to show you a way out, and we're going to take it.

You know, it's so important to get connected with God.

And it's so simple.

Just like praying, like talking to God.

It's actually how we get connected with God.

It's speaking to Jesus in our own words, in our own way.

Jesus, I need you.

Jesus, change me.

Jesus, help me.

You know, whatever it is.

And we're created in God's image.

And when we do that, the spirit he created with comes alive and it connects with God's Spirit.

And immediately he starts changing us from the inside out.

And it's a process.

You know, it's a process that we start.

But he starts changing us from the inside out, making us more like him.

And eventually the outside things around us change too.

So if you haven't done that, today would be a great day to do that.

Let's pray.

Father, we love you.

Abba, Father, Daddy, Father, thank you for adopting us as your kids.

Thank you for loving us.

Thank you for unleashing your power in our lives.

I just ask you to answer all these prayers because I know you are, and that you'd bless everyone here with whatever they need.

And Jesus, we love you.

Thank you for saving us and thank you for teaching us to pray.

It's in your name we pray.

Amen.