Friday, November 16, 2007
By Faith... the Judges, Part 26 of 62
TEXT: "What more shall I say? For the time would fail me to tell of Gideon and Barak and Samson and Jephthah, also of David and Samuel and the prophets" (Hebrews 11:32).
IDEA: We can fail spiritually because we trifle with temptation.
PURPOSE: To help listeners realize the danger of toying with temptation.
One of the petitions in what we call the Lord’s Prayer is “Lead us not into temptation.”
Do you think that if that request were not in the prayer, we would ever pray it on our own?
I. What makes temptation a temptation?
If temptation didn’t appeal to us, it wouldn’t be temptation.
What is the accompanying petition in the Lord’s prayer? “Deliver us from the evil one.”
Is temptation in itself sinful?
Behind the temptation is the tempter. Behind the seduction is the seducer. He doesn’t come to us and say, “Look, just give me 30 minutes and I will destroy your life.” He promises us richness of life and great delight.
The Proverbs warn us about the obvious, “How useless to spread a net in full view of the birds.”
II. Although temptation itself is not sin, it is dangerous to trifle with it.
Samson decided to marry a woman who was a Philistine. He says in Judges 14:3, “She pleases me well.” Literally that is “she is right in my eyes.”
Would you say that Samson was overwhelmed by temptation to marry someone outside of his faith?
He trifled with temptation early in his life. He was overwhelmed by it later in his life.
III. We have the freedom to play with temptation, but not the same freedom to break free of it.
We can trifle and toy with temptation, like playing with a lion cub, but the temptation can overpower us in the end.
If needed, use James 1:13-15: “Let no one say when he is tempted, ‘I am tempted by God,’ for God cannot be tempted by evil, nor does He Himself tempt anyone. But each one is tempted when he is drawn away by his own desires and enticed. Then, when desire has conceived, it gives birth to sin; and sin, when it is full-grown, brings forth death.”
