Introduction:
My Temptation: --------------------------------------------------
How to Beat Temptation: (James 1:13-18)
- Blame the right person. (Jas 1:13-14)
Genesis 3:12 - The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, she gave me fruit of the tree, and I ate."
Proverbs 19:3 - When a man’s folly brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the LORD.
Isaiah 63:17 - O LORD, why do you make us wander from your ways and harden our heart, so that we fear you not?
- Say No early. (Jas 1:15-16)
Romans 13:14 - But put on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make no provision for the flesh, to gratify its desires.
- Focus on God's Gifts . (Jas 1:17)
- Remind yourself of your Identity . (Jas 1:18)
Sermon Notes (PDF): BLANK
Hint: Highlight blanks above for answers!
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00:39-00:44
Back in the day, and this is a long time ago, I used to be pretty good at tennis.
00:46-01:11
Thank you for not laughing at that. Like that seems believable. I mean, let's be honest, I wasn't Venus Williams, okay? I wasn't Serena Williams, okay? But I was okay. I was pretty good. I could keep up. Well, there was a guy who he asked "if I could play him," he was wanting to get ranked.
01:12-01:16
And he had to get so many, I don't know all the rules for that, but he's like, "Hey, I didn't need an excuse, right?
01:16-01:26
"Yeah, let's play tennis." And this man is, trying to think of the biblical way to say this.
01:27-01:29
He was advanced in years.
01:31-01:39
And going into this tennis match, I was thinking, I'm gonna have to take it easy on him, right?
01:40-01:47
Because he's advanced in years and I don't wanna embarrass him, then I'd feel bad.
01:49-01:53
Well, I ended up feeling bad for a whole different reason.
01:54-01:56
He mopped the court with me.
01:58-02:07
And I gotta tell you, it was the most frustrating game I've ever played because it didn't matter what I did.
02:07-02:12
He just seemed like he was always in the right place and he always had the right swing.
02:13-02:17
And I remember I was like, you know, let's overpower him, right?
02:17-02:20
You know, I'll try to get him on the, on the, on an ace serve.
02:20-02:20
Nope.
02:21-02:22
He could return every serve.
02:22-02:25
And I'm like, all right, well, I'll just do a power game from the back.
02:25-02:27
No, he was able to keep up.
02:27-02:28
I'm like, all right, I'll rush up.
02:29-02:29
I'll charge in that.
02:29-02:30
I'll do a finesse thing.
02:30-02:30
Nope.
02:31-02:32
I can do the backspin thing.
02:32-02:37
You know, where you hit it in the ball when it lands, it bounces, you know, where you don't expect it.
02:38-02:48
Everything I tried, he was just so casually like, "Katunk, katunk, katunk," and I got annihilated.
02:50-02:58
No matter how hard I tried, no matter what I did, I could not beat this guy.
02:59-03:03
And you know, today we're gonna be talking about temptation.
03:04-03:11
And for a lot of Christians, you view temptation like that tennis match.
03:12-03:15
That you're like, it doesn't matter how hard I try.
03:16-03:17
It doesn't matter what I do.
03:17-03:21
I just can't seem to beat temptation.
03:23-03:26
Well, let's try it God's way, all right?
03:28-03:28
Let's bow our heads.
03:28-03:35
I'm gonna ask you if you would please pray for me and I will pray for you because we're about to take some time studying God's word.
03:35-03:37
This is a very serious thing to God.
03:37-03:39
So it should be a very serious thing to us.
03:39-03:40
So let's pray.
03:45-03:47
Father, please open our hearts up.
03:49-03:51
Let our hearts be the good soil.
03:56-04:09
that the Word falls on, that your Spirit, Father, is at work with your Word in a way that brings true life change in an area that, if we're honest, we all struggle in some way.
04:10-04:35
I pray, Father, today would be the beginning of a new chapter, of a confident walk before you, because we don't just roll over to temptation and give up, wave the white flag, Father, but we are battling it the way you say to.
04:37-04:39
Father, glorify your name.
04:40-04:44
We pray in Jesus' name, and all of God's people said, amen.
04:45-04:47
Look at James 1:13.
04:51-05:00
He says, "Let no one say when he is tempted." Stop there for a second.
05:00-05:01
Last week, we talked about trials.
05:02-05:04
Now he talks about temptation.
05:04-05:09
So he moves from outward struggles to inward struggles.
05:10-05:10
Right?
05:11-05:17
And we all face temptation of some kind.
05:17-05:21
There's something that leads you to sin.
05:23-05:24
Maybe it's lust.
05:25-05:27
Maybe it's another person.
05:28-05:30
Maybe it's money.
05:30-05:33
Maybe it's an addiction of some kind.
05:33-05:36
There's something that tempts you.
05:38-05:41
So kind of like last week, we have a space at the top of your outline.
05:41-05:45
I want you to write down the thing that tempts you, but hang on a second.
05:46-05:52
'Cause I know right now in a room like this, she might be like, "Somebody's gonna look at my paper." Right?
05:53-05:56
And do I have to, the whole time, try to cover up what I wrote?
05:57-06:11
So here, just do initials of your temptation, maybe a code word that only you and God know so that we're not wrestling with the self-consciousness of somebody looking at your paper.
06:11-06:15
But I do want you to write something down that makes sense to you.
06:15-06:17
Where are you tempted?
06:17-06:19
Go ahead, take a moment, write that down.
06:19-06:20
Where are you tempted?
06:20-06:23
What tempts you into sin?
06:40-06:42
Do you have your temptation down?
06:45-06:47
in the undecipherable code.
06:48-06:54
Well, look, before we get into this, I get to remind you, temptation itself is not a sin, right?
06:55-06:57
Jesus was tempted.
06:59-07:02
Our problem is that we give in and we sin.
07:03-07:07
And then we get so stinking frustrated with ourselves.
07:08-07:16
We knew better and now we feel so guilty and we swear that we're never gonna do it again until we do.
07:18-07:20
So how do we beat temptation?
07:23-07:25
That's what James tells us here.
07:25-07:27
On your outline, I want you to jot some things down.
07:28-07:29
How to beat temptation.
07:31-07:34
Number one, you gotta start here.
07:34-07:35
This is where James starts.
07:35-07:36
This is where you gotta start.
07:37-07:37
Blame the right person.
07:40-07:41
Blame the right person.
07:44-07:55
Because here's the thing, when we're tempted, this is true of every single human being, when we're tempted and we sin, we immediately look for someone else to blame.
07:58-08:00
We all do it, right?
08:01-08:06
Well, I drink because my wife is a hag.
08:10-08:12
That's just an example, okay?
08:12-08:14
That's not from personal experience.
08:20-08:27
Or, "I look at bad stuff on the internet "because my wife is cold towards me.
08:30-08:32
"I overeat because my boss is mean.
08:35-08:37
"My friends made me.
08:38-08:41
"My parents made me." How about this one?
08:42-08:43
God made me.
08:45-08:49
And I mean that literally, that it's God's fault.
08:50-08:52
My temptation is God's fault because God made me, right?
08:54-08:55
God created me.
08:56-09:04
And all that I am and all these desires and things that I have, well, God created me, so it must be His fault, right?
09:08-09:09
Nothing new here.
09:10-09:13
You know, this goes all the way back to the Garden of Eden, right?
09:14-09:17
Remember Adam and Eve fell into sin.
09:18-09:20
Look at Genesis 3, 12, we'll put it on the screen for you.
09:20-09:35
It says, "The man said, "The woman whom you gave to be with me," this is Adam speaking to God, and God's like, "What'd you do?" And Adam's like, "The woman whom you gave to be with me, "she gave me fruit of the tree and I ate." Do you notice Adam?
09:38-09:41
As soon as he was confronted with his sin, what did he do?
09:42-09:43
He immediately started blaming.
09:43-09:52
And the really interesting thing to me about this is understand at this point in human history, Adam knew two individuals.
09:53-09:55
He knew exactly two individuals.
09:56-09:58
He knew God and he knew Eve.
09:58-10:04
And you notice when he was confronted with his sin, Adam literally blamed every single other person that he knew.
10:05-10:12
He says, "The woman, oh, and by the way, God, "you put her here.
10:13-10:21
"Things were awfully quiet before she showed up." I'm not saying, God, I'm just saying, I'm not saying, but I'm saying, you know what I mean?
10:23-10:29
You put her here, God, so in a way, God, in a way, I mean, in a way, isn't this kind of on you?
10:33-10:35
There's nothing new here.
10:35-10:41
Proverbs talks about this, a verse that I talk about often with my son.
10:42-10:48
Proverbs 19.3 says, "When a man's folly "brings his way to ruin, his heart rages against the Lord." Do you know what that means?
10:49-10:56
It means we make stupid choices and then we face consequences for the stupid choices that we make.
10:56-10:57
And whose fault is it?
10:58-10:58
It's God's fault.
10:59-11:00
It's God's fault.
11:03-11:41
And you're like, "Well, you know what, Jeff, last week, you said that God really ultimately is responsible through His sovereignty, through His providence for our trials. Does He also bring the temptations? No, He does not. All right? So you've got to stop that right now. Look at verse 13. He says, "Let no one say "when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God." For God cannot be tempted with evil.
11:43-11:46
And he himself tempts no one.
11:47-11:51
That could also literally be translated, God is inexperienced with evil.
11:52-11:56
He's not tempted and he doesn't tempt anyone.
11:56-11:58
All right, so it's not God.
12:00-12:08
God, that's just completely opposite of his nature to not only give in to temptation, but to try to tempt his people.
12:09-12:12
He's like, no, no, no, that's completely not God.
12:12-12:14
We're like, you're like, so, okay, all right, all right.
12:14-12:16
So who is to blame?
12:16-12:19
Pastor Jeff, I wrote this thing down on the top of my outline here.
12:19-12:22
I got my temptation in my little code here.
12:25-12:27
So who is to blame for this?
12:30-12:31
Well, look at verse 14.
12:31-12:54
He says, "But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire." James says, "We are lured and enticed by our own desire." Men, that is a, I guess some ladies, that is a trapping and fishing.
12:55-12:58
is trapping and fishing terminology, lured and enticed.
12:59-13:01
It's talking about capturing with bait.
13:03-13:03
All right?
13:04-13:05
You know how that works.
13:06-13:18
Whether you're fishing or whether you set traps, the bait looks so good and it's so attractive and the animal comes to take it and the animal is captured.
13:22-13:26
But is it really the bait responsible for capturing the animal?
13:28-13:29
Is it really the bait?
13:34-13:37
If you think about it, it's really not the bait that does it.
13:38-13:41
It's the inward desire of the animal that's responsible, right?
13:44-13:49
It's the fact that most animals are just led by their appetites.
13:51-13:56
and it's the animal's hunger, it's the animal's inward desire that gets it trapped.
13:59-14:01
And James says, that's the same for you.
14:04-14:09
When you're tempted, when you sin, whose fault is it?
14:09-14:16
Not Satan, not demons, not God, you.
14:17-14:18
You are responsible.
14:21-14:23
because of what's inside you.
14:23-14:25
You're like, wait, wait, wait, hang on a second.
14:25-14:28
You're telling me it's not Satan's fault, it's not demons fault?
14:28-14:38
Well, Jesus and his whole ministry was surrounded by demons and Satan came right after Jesus and he never gave in.
14:40-14:43
James says it's our own desire.
14:45-14:50
You know, the Bible says we each have an individual bent towards sin, Isaiah 53, six.
14:50-14:53
We all like sheep have gone astray, each to his own way.
14:54-14:58
You have a sin, a propensity, an inclination.
15:00-15:02
It's gonna be different from person to person.
15:03-15:05
That's why some people's sin looks weird to us.
15:05-15:06
Like, I can't believe he's tempted by that.
15:07-15:08
That's because that's not your inclination.
15:09-15:12
But if that dude looked at your sin inclination, you look weird to him.
15:14-15:18
because we all have our own desire.
15:20-15:24
And it's that desire that lures us to the bait.
15:25-15:30
So listen, the internet isn't the problem.
15:33-15:38
Some of you might be too young to realize this, but people lusted before the internet was invented.
15:40-15:41
Can you believe that?
15:43-15:45
The internet isn't the problem, you are.
15:47-15:50
Alcohol isn't the problem, you are.
15:52-15:57
Your spouse's attitude isn't the problem, you are.
15:59-16:05
And you are never gonna beat temptation until you start here.
16:07-16:11
When I'm tempted and when I sin, it's my fault.
16:12-16:14
It's because of what's in here.
16:14-16:15
It's my fault.
16:16-16:18
You're going to get nowhere until you get there.
16:19-16:19
All right?
16:20-16:23
So James says, "How to beat temptation, number one, blame the right person.
16:23-16:29
Number two, say no early." Look at verse 15.
16:31-16:37
He's talking about our own desire, that propensity, that inclination towards sin that we have in our hearts.
16:37-16:45
He says, look at this, "Then desire, when it has conceived, gives birth to sin.
16:45-17:04
"And sin, when it is fully grown, brings forth death." So he switches from the hunting and trapping and fishing metaphor to the childbirth metaphor.
17:07-17:11
And James's point is simply this, sin is not an act.
17:12-17:16
Sin is the result of a process.
17:21-17:23
Like how babies are born.
17:24-17:30
Now, I don't have time this morning to explain to you how babies are made, okay?
17:31-17:32
Ask your mom.
17:33-17:35
But I do wanna say this.
17:37-17:41
Babies don't just miraculously show up in your house one day, do they?
17:42-17:44
Like, oh, wow, we had another baby.
17:44-17:45
Didn't realize that.
17:45-17:47
The stork dropped him off.
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That's not how it happens.
17:49-17:53
There's a whole process that takes place for that baby to get there.
17:54-17:57
And that's what he's saying about sin.
17:58-18:02
Sin isn't this act that just happens like, whoa, holy smokes, I just sinned.
18:02-18:03
How in the world did that happen?
18:04-18:06
It's the result of a process.
18:08-18:11
I mean, just think of that track.
18:11-18:13
Let's talk, let's just pick a sim.
18:13-18:14
We'll just talk about drinking, for example.
18:15-18:17
Let's say you have an alcohol problem.
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Let's just use that as an example.
18:20-18:23
You can plug in whatever your temptation is here.
18:23-18:26
But let's just talk about drinking for a second.
18:26-18:28
If you're an alcoholic, it starts with desire.
18:29-18:30
You have that inclination.
18:30-18:39
Some people have that inclination, some people don't, But it starts with that desire, an addictive tendency or an addictive personality or whatever you wanna call it.
18:39-18:42
It's your sin inclination, you have that desire.
18:43-18:50
And then with your sin, with your temptation, it goes to justification.
18:52-18:56
And you are the master of justifying your own sin.
18:57-19:01
I'm the master of justifying my own sin, right?
19:03-19:11
Like the person that has struggled with alcoholism, they're gonna say things like, "Oh, I had a great day.
19:12-19:17
"I deserve a drink." Or, "I had a horrible day.
19:19-19:24
"I'm having a drink." It's been a long day, I'm having a drink.
19:24-19:27
It's been a short day, I have time for a drink.
19:27-19:28
You see my point?
19:29-19:31
Any excuse will do.
19:31-19:36
And we all do that, whatever you wrote down on your, that's what we can justify that.
19:40-19:44
And then the next step in the process involves your will.
19:44-19:46
You make a plan to get it, right?
19:46-19:49
You have the desire, you've justified it.
19:49-19:53
Okay, but in this case, like the alcohol doesn't just miraculously show up.
19:54-19:55
You have to make a plan.
19:56-20:01
I'm going to do this, and here's where I'm going to go to drink, where I'm going to go to buy it.
20:02-20:12
You make this plan, and then ultimately, the sin occurs, the act occurs.
20:14-20:23
But if you try to deal with this when you sin, when it becomes the action, it's too late.
20:24-20:26
And that's what James is saying here.
20:26-20:35
That sin baby is born, and it grows up and it only ever brings one thing, death.
20:38-20:39
That's James's point here.
20:39-20:43
You're like, well, is James talking to the Christians and the non-Christians?
20:43-20:44
Who's he talking to?
20:44-20:46
It's a universal principle.
20:46-21:00
He says, "Sin only ever produces death." All sin ever does is destroy your relationships, your witness, your walk, your life.
21:00-21:07
All of those things get destroyed by death when that sin baby is born.
21:11-21:14
You know, jot this reference down, 2 Samuel 11.
21:14-21:19
We've talked about it in past time, but it's the story of King David.
21:21-21:24
He was supposed to be at war and he saw, he was home, he saw a woman bathing.
21:25-21:26
I'm paraphrasing here very quickly.
21:27-21:35
He saw a woman bathing and he inquired about her, he sent for her and he ended up having an affair.
21:35-21:38
Found out it was one of his soldiers who was off at war.
21:38-21:40
Found out it was one of his soldier's wives.
21:40-21:46
So he goes, "Oh, I gotta cover this up." So he brings that soldier back from war to try to get him to sleep with his wife to think that that was his baby.
21:47-21:49
That didn't work, the soldier had too much honor.
21:49-21:58
So he's like, "Well, I'm gonna get him drunk." And then he'll stagger home and be with his wife and think the baby's his, and even in his drunken state, he had more honor than King David in that moment.
21:59-22:02
And then David had him murdered.
22:05-22:08
And it's a horrible story.
22:12-22:19
If you're familiar with it, I just want you to think, when would it have been easiest for David to avoid all of the trouble that he got in?
22:20-22:20
When?
22:22-22:26
I'll tell you when it wouldn't have been easiest is when the woman was at his house.
22:28-22:36
It wouldn't have been easy when the flirtation and the physical contact and all of that started happening.
22:37-22:38
It wouldn't have been easy then.
22:38-22:42
When would it have been easiest for David to avoid all of this?
22:42-22:50
The first moment that he saw her naked bathing, the first moment that he saw her, look, whoa, whoa, I shouldn't be, whoa, whoa.
22:52-22:59
walk away, do anything else, would have been so much easier for David.
23:01-23:07
You see, the principle is this, the earlier you fight, the easier the fight is.
23:10-23:13
The earlier you fight, the easier the fight is.
23:14-23:15
You're like, well, how do I say no early?
23:17-23:18
How do I do that?
23:20-23:22
Well, you're gonna know where you're weak, right?
23:24-23:25
You're gonna know where you're weak.
23:25-23:27
You wrote something on your outline, right?
23:27-23:29
And if you're like, I just couldn't think of anything.
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Well, you're either like delusional or Jesus, if you couldn't think of anything that leads you into sin.
23:40-23:43
I'm leaning towards the former on that, if you couldn't think of anything to write.
23:44-23:47
You're gonna know where you're weak and you're gonna confess that to the Lord.
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Oh, by the way, God already knows.
23:49-23:53
It's not like you're gonna tell him something that is gonna embarrass you, he knows.
23:53-23:57
But you need to confess that to the Lord and say, "God, this is where I struggle with temptation.
23:58-24:06
This is where I'm weak." And we say no early, not just by knowing where you're weak, but by avoiding scenarios where you're tempted.
24:09-24:12
Avoiding scenarios where you're tempted.
24:13-24:17
When you're tempted, when you sin, where are you in that moment?
24:18-24:20
What are you doing in that moment?
24:21-24:29
And you need to take steps to get out of that situation, to get away from those people, whatever it is.
24:30-24:45
That's why Paul says, Romans 13, 14, he says, "Put on the Lord Jesus Christ and make no provision "for the flesh to gratify his desires." That's how you win early.
24:46-24:58
How much easier would it have been for David to look away before it got to where it got?
24:59-25:03
How much easier would it be for you to say no early?
25:05-25:11
When that, at the desire level, when you start to feel that temptation to do that, no, no, you know what?
25:12-25:12
No.
25:13-25:14
The answer is no.
25:20-25:22
You gotta say no early.
25:24-25:29
Do you know the best way to not lose a fight?
25:30-25:32
Do you know the best way to not lose a fight?
25:33-25:33
Don't show up.
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Don't show up.
25:38-25:43
When I was little, I'm talking little, like I was, I don't know, I couldn't be much more than seven or eight.
25:43-25:44
It was so long ago.
25:46-25:53
But I was up at the campground, all the campers and the trailers and the tents and the playgrounds.
25:53-25:57
Well, I was out riding my bike, like seven-year-olds did back then.
25:57-25:57
Do they still do that?
25:58-26:06
I was out riding my bike, and I was going to this playground, and the playground had this really steep hill, and then it had a shuffle ball court.
26:06-26:07
Do you know what shuffle ball?
26:09-26:11
Ask your mom that too.
26:11-26:12
Your mom's got a lot of explaining to do.
26:14-26:21
But anyways, I went down this hill and I kind of lost control of my bike and I hit this other kid on his bike, right?
26:22-26:26
And we exchanged insurance and all that.
26:28-26:30
I hit this kid on his bike and he was fine.
26:31-26:31
I just lost control.
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I was seven, come on, I was seven.
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Some of you are looking at me with such disgust.
26:35-26:35
I was seven.
26:37-26:43
Well, this kid had an older brother And the older brother was like, "Four o'clock, right here.
26:44-26:49
"Meet right here, we're gonna fight "because you ran into my brother." And I'm like, "But he's fine." It's like four o'clock.
26:50-26:54
I don't know why, I look back at this now, I don't know why he scheduled it for four o'clock.
26:55-27:00
Like, you know, he-man comes on at three, so we gotta do this at four.
27:00-27:02
Like, is this gonna be on pay-per-view?
27:02-27:05
Like, why do we have to come back for this?
27:05-27:06
And I'm seven, I didn't know anything.
27:07-27:11
He's like, "Come back at four, we're gonna fight." And I'm just like, okay.
27:13-27:19
And I remember, it was about 3.30, quarter to four.
27:19-27:21
I'm walking back to the playground.
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I'm like, I guess we're having a fight today.
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And my mom was out driving.
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She pulls up beside me in her car.
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She goes, what are you doing?
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Well, I couldn't tell her.
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I'm going to a fight.
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Did you give me a ride?
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Can you be my cut man?
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I was just like, oh, I'm heading to the playground.
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She goes, well, we have, supper's gonna be ready in a little bit.
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Your dad's working.
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So just get in the car.
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And I'm like, okay.
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So I got in the car.
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That guy's still probably standing at the playground waiting for the fight.
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But I'll tell you something.
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He was bigger than me.
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And he might've stomped me into a puddle, but I did not lose that fight because I didn't show up.
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You see, that's what James is telling us here about temptation.
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We try to deal with it way too late when instead we need to learn, make no provision for the flesh.
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Look at verse 16.
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He says, "Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers." Don't be deceived.
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You want to beat temptation?
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You got to stop deceiving yourself.
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We're just fish swimming around going, "Well, I'm sure there's no hook under that bait." We're deceiving ourselves.
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You see this, whatever this thing is that you wrote down, your temptation, if it wasn't so tragic, it would be funny.
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But with your temptation, you know what you do, every person does this.
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You tell yourself lies about this, and then you turn around and you believe the lie that you just told yourself about this.
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We all have this propensity church, Are we gonna wake up to it?
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Well, with your temptation, these are the lies we tell ourselves.
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Well, I'm not hurting anybody but me.
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That's a lie.
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Or I can handle this.
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You know, I can handle this.
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Oh, really?
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Really?
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How are we doing so far on that?
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You're not handling it.
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Or it's not that bad.
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Yes, it is.
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It's sin.
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Knock it off.
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It is that bad.
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The lies we tell ourself, and you know the biggest lie we tell ourselves is I'll quit tomorrow.
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This is the last time I'm gonna do this, but I'm gonna quit tomorrow.
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I'm gonna break up this relationship tomorrow.
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I'm gonna stop looking at this stuff tomorrow.
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I'm gonna stop ingesting this stuff tomorrow.
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Just one more night, just one more night, right?
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Pharaoh, just one more night with the frogs.
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I'm done tomorrow.
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That's a lie that you tell yourself.
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You get to replace the lies with these truths.
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This is sin.
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It needs to stop.
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And I'm going to beat temptation if I learn how to say no early.
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Don't show up for the fight.
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Number three, how do I beat temptation?
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We get to blame the right person, you say no early.
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Three, focus on God's gifts.
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Look at verse 17.
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"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, "coming down from the Father of lights, "with whom there is no variation or shadow due to change." The Father of lights, that was the Jewish way of saying God is the creator.
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I love this, so it says, "He has, there's no variation, and there's no shadow due to change.
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What does that mean?
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It means like, even with the sun, it looks like there's a lot of change in the amount of light that's given by the sun, right?
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Very bright in the middle of the day, then sunset, it seems like the sun's dimming.
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And then at night, it seems like the sun has turned off.
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So there's variation in the amount of light that even the sun gives seemingly.
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But he says, God's not like that.
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There's no variation with Him.
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God does not change.
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Everything that comes from God is good.
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Your family, your friends, your church, your small group.
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These are some of the gifts that God gives.
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He gives so many.
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Do you know what else God gives?
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God gives you purpose.
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God gives you promises.
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God, through his word, which is another one of his gifts, gives us the gift of hope.
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I could go on and on and on talking about all of the gifts that God gives, but this is James's point.
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That if God only gives good and perfect gifts, why do we go after sin?
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Why do we turn our back on God?
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James says, "Yeah, everything that God gives is good." So let me ask you, what has sin gotten you?
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Is there somebody that can stand and give testimony to, "Hey, this one time I sinned and it was awesome.
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"Everything turned out great for me as a result." Can anybody give testimony to that?
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That your sin has brought you something good?
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You know what sin brings?
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Sin brings guilt and shame and hurt and broken relationships and ruins your health and losing money and...
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Sin never takes you anywhere good.
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But all that God gives is good.
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Church, you will never overcome temptation, sin, the guilt, the shame. You'll never overcome these things if you try to do it the world's way. Because what we see in this verse is completely contradictory to secular psychology. Secular psychology says, "The problem is out there and the solution is in here, right? The problem is out there. We blame other people for our problems, other things, circumstances. The problem's out there, but the answer is here. You need to learn to love yourself, you need to learn to forgive yourself, and you need to affirm yourself, and blah blah blah. The Bible teaches something completely opposite to that. See, where secular psychology says "The problem's out here, the solution's in here." The Bible says, "No, no, no, no, no.
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"The problem's in here." And where's the solution?
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The solution's out there.
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It's from the God who gives every good and perfect gift from above.
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That's where we get our help.
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We gotta get our help outside of ourselves.
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It never comes from within ourselves.
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So focus not on your temptation.
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You need to put your eyes and your time and your attention on the good things that God gives, and you're gonna find that you don't have any time or attention for the bait of temptation.
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It's about focus, right?
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And then finally, remind yourself of your identity.
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Look at verse 18.
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I could spend like probably two months preaching.
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There's just so much in this verse.
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We're not gonna do that.
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Look at verse 18.
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He says, "Of his own will, he brought us forth "by the word of truth, "that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures." Remind yourself of your identity.
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People excuse their sins saying, "Yeah, I can't help it, I was born this way." And I say, "Yeah, that's true." And that's exactly why Jesus said, "You must be born again." That's exactly what James is talking about.
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When it says God brought us forth, he's talking about this, God transformed us.
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God put his spirit in us.
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The Bible says that we become partakers of the divine nature.
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Like, well, how did that happen?
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He tells us it happened by the word of truth.
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Listen, this is how the gospel works.
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A very short verse.
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You are dead in your sin.
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You hear the message from the Bible about what Jesus did, and you turn from your sin and receive Jesus Christ.
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And when you do that, the Bible says, God puts his Holy Spirit in you.
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And now you're alive in Christ.
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You're a new creature.
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That's what Jesus called being born again.
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So hear me, the gospel is not about becoming a churchgoer.
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The gospel is not about becoming religious.
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And the gospel is not even about becoming a better person.
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The gospel is about becoming a new person.
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It's nothing less than a total transformation of who you are.
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You're like, well, what does that look like?
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"Were you not paying attention a few minutes ago?" This is what it looks like.
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That's why we baptize.
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It's the picture.
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When Lucas and Kelly went under the water, they were saying, "I'm dead." And when they're coming out of the water, they said, "I'm being raised in the newness of life.
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"I'm identifying with the life of Jesus Christ.
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"He is alive in me.
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"I'm a new person.
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"I'm not the same person that I was, "and it's because of Jesus Christ." That's what the gospel is.
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That's what the gospel does.
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He says that we should be a kind of first fruits of his creatures.
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First fruits, that's an Old Testament concept.
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The concept of first fruits is this.
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You know, when they would bring in their crops, the very first and best part of their crops were to be given back to God.
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And I know it might be hard for us to understand unless you are a farmer here, but in that culture, there would be a real easy tendency to get that first batch of the crop in and hoard it, to say, "Hey, I'm gonna need this, I'm gonna have to eat, my family's gonna have to eat, I'm keeping this." But giving the first fruits back to God was an act of thanksgiving.
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It was an act of worship and catch this, it was an act of faith that the rest of the crop was coming.
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Like, well, what does that have to do with what James is talking about here?
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Listen, I've told you before the best verse in the Bible is Revelation 21 five.
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And don't give me this, it's all God's word, it all has equal value.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah, I get that.
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But the best verse in the Bible is Revelation 21 five.
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It says, "And he who was seated on the throne said, "Behold, I'm making all things new.
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"Also he said," write this down, For these words are trustworthy and true.
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A day is coming when our Lord is going to make all things new.
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There's gonna be a new heavens.
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There's gonna be a new earth.
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There's not going to be sin or death or suffering.
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It's going to be a kingdom that's completely righteous, a kingdom that's not dominated by sin the way the world is now.
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You see, James reminds us here that we, church, born again believers, we are the first fruits of that.
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Like, what does that mean?
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It means we, those who are born again, those who have been transformed by Jesus Christ, We are the first evidence of the promise of Him making all things new.
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You understand that?
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If you're like, in other words, if you're like, well, how do we know?
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How do we know that God's going to make all things new?
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The answer is because by His grace, He made me new.
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I'm the first fruits of what's coming.
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This idea of newness and transformation.
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And if you are born again, you are proof of what is coming because God made you new.
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You are the first fruits of the new heavens and the new earth because you're new now.
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You understand that?
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It's an identity issue is what it is.
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You need to see yourself as the first fruits.
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and saying, you know what, as first fruits, I belong to God.
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And as first fruits, I'm a new creature.
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And that kingdom that is coming, I represent that right now.
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The righteousness of God's kingdom, that's what I'm going after today.
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because even though that kingdom isn't fully here yet, it is here now in me.
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Do you understand what the implications of this are?
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'Cause somebody could say, well, what about pornography?
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The answer is, you know, there's a kingdom that's coming, a kingdom that I'm part of now, And in that kingdom, we don't do that.
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We don't do that in that kingdom.
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What about unfaithfulness in your marriage?
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You know what that kingdom that's coming?
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I'm a part of that.
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We don't do that stuff.
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We don't do anything unfaithful.
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I'm part of that kingdom now.
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What about drunkenness or other addiction?
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What about perverted joking?
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What about greed?
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What about slander?
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Like, I don't do that stuff.
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Because I'm part of the kingdom that's coming.
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I'm the first fruits.
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That's not who I am anymore.
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So when you're faced with temptation, you need to remind yourself this, hey, hey, Jesus died for that sin, and he made me a new person.
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And I'm not doing that.
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Because that's just not who I am anymore.
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Then who am I?
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Well, I'm a person who fights temptation.
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And I'm a person who discovers that I win when I realize it's not God's fault, it's mine.
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I win when I say no early.
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I win when I get my eyes off of the things that tempt me and get them on the things that God gives.
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And I win when I remind myself, I'm the first fruits of God's new creation.
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I'm avoiding that sin, that temptation, because that's just not who I am.
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That's how you beat temptation, God's way.
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Let's pray.
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Father in heaven, we thank you for your Word.
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And I just felt like we barely scratched the surface on everything that you're telling us in this passage.
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Father, I pray that these principles would take deep root into our hearts 'cause we are to represent you and your kingdom.
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And so often I do a lousy job of that.
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Father, let us be people who define sin and temptation and all of these things, define them and describe them and understand them in the way that you do.
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And go after resisting and beating temptation in the way that you've laid out here.
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For your glory and honor, Father, we pray in Jesus' name, amen.
Small Group Discussion
Read James 1:13-18
What was your big take-away from this passage / message?
What excuses have you made - or heard - for giving into temptation? What does James say about who is responsible for our sin?
Why do you think people tend to blame God for their failures?
Are all desires bad (Jas 1:14)? How do you know what is a good desire and what is a sinful desire?
What gifts from God can you focus on when you are tempted to sin?
Breakout
Pray for one another - to resist temptation the way James lays out for us.