- Well, good morning. We wanna welcome those that are worshiping here in our worship center upstairs and for those that are worshiping in our lower gathering area, welcome, we're delighted you're with us. And for those that are worshiping online we are delighted you're with us, as well, and excited about what God has in store for us. We wanna pause here for a moment to remember some very important people. It's Veteran's Day that is quickly approaching us, and we wanna thank those of you that have served in our military in any way, shape, or form. And so it's a big deal here at Rockpoint. Hang on just a second. We're gonna get there. I want you to stand if you have served in some way, and then now we wanna clap, whether you're online or here or downstairs for these individuals. Thank you, thank you, thank you. And we have a special gift for you. We have a military ministry here at Rockpoint, and we wanna reach out to you, pray for you, encourage you in any way we possibly can. We've got a free gift for you and our gathering area just right outside directly in front of me, and you'll find some wonderful people who would like to give you that gift. So, thanks again for serving. I would like to invite all of you to please take your Bibles out, and I want you to turn to James chapter one and locate verse 13. And I hope you've already downloaded your notes. You're gonna wanna keep those in front of you as we take a look at our topic today. So, James 1:13, and then download the notes. We are in the midst of a new series in the book of James, a very practical book. And before we dive right in, let's pause just for a moment and ask for God's insight and blessing in our lives. Let's pray. Lord, thank You for the power of Your truth, how practical it is in our world today. We ask that Father, You would take the truth that was written almost 2,000 years ago and transfer that into our culture because it is transcultural. And then, God, I ask that You would grip our lives with it, change us right here in this place because of the power of Your truth to give us victory in the midst of what we face in life. And it is in Christ's name that we pray, Amen. Well, last week we took a look at how real faith works when life doesn't. Today we're gonna look at how real faith works when tempted. Now, today's subject needs no introduction. We all know what we mean when I use the word temptation. Just like trials, we know what those are, those difficulties in our life, but also for temptations, we know what they are. We all face them. They come in different ways, shapes, and sizes, but they show up in our life. Now, they can also come because of pressures. So you might be in the midst of a trial with COVID-19, economic pressures, we're all experiencing the trial of another election, quite frankly, and trying to figure out how to respond in a way that's honoring to God. Well, temptations can arise during those moments. And that's why this week it is so important as James begins to turn the corner from trials to temptation and help us out. Someone said that "opportunity rings the doorbell once. However, it's temptation that stands at the door and continues to ring the buzzer." So today, as we open up, look down at verse 13, and let me begin reading for you. James says, "Let no one say when he is tempted, I'm being tempted by God, for God cannot be tempted, with evil and He Himself tempts no one. But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by his own desire, then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin, and sin when it is fully grown brings forth death." James starts with a few trues about temptation. And he begins to walk us through just some basic understanding of what happens in our life. And he starts with this one. He says, temptations are inevitable and a part of life. If you look down at verse 13 again, he starts with the same way he did with trials. When you experience trials, and then in verse 13, he says, when you or I are tempted, there's not a person listening today that is immune or vaccinated, so to speak, from temptation. It shows up in different ways, shapes, and sizes. It comes from deep within, which we've already read here. Oscar Wilde, who was a famous playwright, he said, "I can resist anything except temptation." Now, temptations are never prompted by God. Again, let's go back to truth. This is an important understanding to go back to the truth as we talk about this subject. And so what does he say here? He says that God is not the source, "for God cannot be tempted with evil and He Himself temps no one." Now, right before that phrase in verse 13, right in the middle, there's this little tiny word, by. Okay? It's really important. If it's your Bible, you can circle it, highlight it. It's very critical. That English word, by, actually means that God is not indirectly or directly responsible for temptation. That's the idea that he's after here. He's not the origin of it. When a trial comes, when difficulty moves into our life it is so easy to start blaming God. He withheld something from me, or I deserve it, or, God, why'd You put me in this situation? And it's at that point that we begin to feel this temptation. God cannot be tempted with evil and He tempts no one. He's absolutely good, He's holy. Holiness means that He is separate from evil. He's over evil. It doesn't affect Him in any way, shape, or form. He's not affected by it. So don't blame God, don't blame your parents, circumstances, because he makes it clear that sin and temptation follows a process. Temptations follow a process that is consistent. And that's where I want us to go to, a couple of key words here. If you'll look at verse 14 he gives a but there, which is a contrast. He turns from God, who can't tempt or be tempted, to you, you're the source, that's the contrast there. And he starts with this idea that he's mentioned a couple of times here, the word desire. Now, what is he saying here? Well, he implies in these verses that there's an external object, thought, person, deed, whatever it might be, again, it comes in different ways, but it's an external object that is dropped into your life, and then lust sees it, and you desire it for pleasure, for revenge, for getting even on someone. It doesn't matter what it is, but there's two things that come together. Now, that source comes from deep within us. There's a desire, there's a hunger to take what was just offered to us with this external source. It comes from our sinful heart, our sinful nature, our sinful flesh, it's there, it's resident, it's within us. Now verse 15 helps us here, because he says in the first part of it, "then desire when it has conceived," that word we translate, conceived, means to together. His point is this, the object is dropped into your life, lust sees it, is combined with it, and desire is conceived. It shows up, and that's the temptation. Now, when that is there, you have a choice to make, but I just wanna stop there for a minute, because at that point he says, you have this desire that was and it now wants what it sees. Now, this little lure right here illustrates it, 'cause he uses the word here. Now, this has got to be, I don't know, I don't fish a whole lot, but this has to be a billion dollar industry, okay? And they come in different shapes and sizes, for those of you that fish, right? Different colors for water conditions and type of fish and all that kind of stuff. I'm not so sure it always works. Fish really don't have a memory, I hate to tell you, and that's why they catch and release and all that stuff. But it's fun, right? So you put this in the water and what happens is exactly what he's talking about. It's dropped in the water, fish sees bait, and what does it do? It's lured, it's pulled, it's dragged towards it. It's enticed to take it. Out of curiosity, out of persuasion, out of rationalization, we see it, and this desire has been conceived, and we want that object, whatever that might be. I do wanna make a point here, though, that the desire or the temptation is not the sin. Be careful. However that it's pulling us. For instance, kids, your mom and dad told you to share the candy bar with your brother and sister, okay? You know what they meant? They meant to cut it in half. What are you tempted to do? Come on, you know exactly what you're gonna do. You're gonna give them this amount and you're gonna take this amount. Okay? That's the temptation. For an adult, it could be gossip, it could be taking revenge on someone, it could be acting in a inappropriate way, whatever that is, I mean, there's just a variety of things that show up in our lives that cause the temptation. You can fill in the gaps. Peter reminds us in 1 Peter 5:8, "Be sober-minded," or clear thinking about this. "Be watchful," be aware, "your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion seeking someone to devour," why? Because you, if you're a follower of Jesus Christ, those are the individuals that James is writing to. There's a target on your back. And Satan and his demons are gonna drop all kinds of these things, lures, into your life, created just with the right conditions to get you pulled in its direction, to bite it and take the bait. One of the best books that describes this is written by somebody you're probably familiar with, C.S. Lewis. He wrote a great book called "Screwtape Letters." I'd highly recommend get a copy of that book and read it, because he goes through how easily we can be deceived. You know, it could start as a legitimate desire, okay? You might love food, but if it goes too far it's, what? It's gluttony. You might enjoy resting. We all need that, right? But if you go too far it turns into, what? Laziness Desires show up in different ways. Now, here's the next phase, though, that he moves through, and that's deception. This is where we begin to get deceived. If you'll look at those words again, he says in verse 14 that when this desire's conceived there's a luring or a being dragged away, there's enticement that happens, you know what it is. But it's coming from deep within. His point is it's not coming from God, it's coming from inside of you. You're being drawn towards this. And it's important here to take responsibility here and say, the desire is mine. You don't wanna move into that phase of rationalizing or blaming others, because that's where the lure is pulling you. You have to understand, Satan's goal is to trip you up. If you are a follower of Jesus, I'll guarantee you 100%, he does not like you. And he doesn't like that you're part of God's kingdom agenda. He doesn't like that you're here to communicate Christ to the world, and therefore he's gonna do everything he possibly can to make sure that this is attractive. Now, I've given you a fishing illustration, but a hunting illustration would be similar. It's a trap, you're being pulled into it so that it snaps shut on you, and it's got you. You've committed that sin and act, and the consequences come. When we were first married, the first place we lived was in the bottom of a house up in Shoreview. And there was a homeowner, they furnished the basement, we lived down there, and in this home, there was a dropped ceiling. It was a soft ceiling, and the trouble was there were mice, and I'm not just talking one, okay? There were aunts and uncles. They put out word to the entire family, and they all came and lived in our ceiling. Now, I didn't grow up with mice in Cicero, okay? We had rats, you know, like this, but we have little mice. So this was my first attempt at catching one of these things. So I got the mouse traps and I put the cheese on there and I think I put peanut butter. I was gonna do everything I possibly can to entice these guys. And the reason was, it was in the middle of the night, we'd wake up in hear pitter patter across our ceiling. And it was one of us, I can't remember if it was me or Lynette woke up with this nightmare of choking this massive rodent. So we decided, we gotta get rid of this thing. So I set the trap, and fortunately, I think it was by God's design, I woke up at the strategic moment, and all of a sudden we heard this across the ceiling and then, snap! And this thing just started flopping all over the ceiling. There was rejoicing in the Fruits household. I actually hunted and I won. I've never hunted in my life. I shot some chipmunks, I guess, but this was great. Well, that's what happens. There's rejoicing in a dark kingdom when this happens. And deception enters and rationalization happens. Everybody's doing it. I deserve it. And before you know it, the greed, the materialism, the power, the arrogance, whatever is drawing you is pulling you, and you're beginning to find fulfillment, or at least lingering on finding fulfillment, in a counterfeit instead of God. That's an important statement. It was Dietrich Bonhoeffer that I think described this in one of the best ways I've I've ever heard it laid out. He describes the process by saying that regardless of the object that is placed before us or the thought, it could be, again, ambition, vanity, fame, power, greed, whatever it is, there's a smoldering fire in us that is kindled, and the flames begin to burn. This is the desire. And our desire is a desire for the world and what Satan has then placed before us, it's conceived. And what we don't realize is that our joy and fulfillment in the Lord is being extinguished, and we're now seeking to find it in the creature or a counterfeit, and that's where we're beginning to sense deception. Now, I quote him when I read this, "at that moment, God is quite unreal to us. He," meaning us, the one being tempted, "loses all reality, and only desire for the creature is real. The only reality is the devil. Satan does not here fill us with the hatred of God, but the forgetfulness of God." Did you catch that? See, what is happening is God is becoming smaller because you're moving away from Him. And when you move away from an object, it becomes smaller, and He's becoming smaller and you're becoming bigger. And before you know it, pride sets in and arrogance sets in, and you take control, and you start making decisions. And unfortunately, if we don't stop at this point, desire, the temptation is not the sin, but if we don't stop now, resist it, get away from it, we move to disobedience, where we linger on it too long, we take the bait. And after disobedience, James describes death taking place here. Now, what kind of death is James after? I don't think he's talking about physical death, even though sin can cause physical illness and death as a part of God's consequence. This comes up in James 5. We'll get there in several weeks from now. And he's also not talking about spiritual death. That would be eternal death as a result of not accepting Christ as Savior and Lord. For follower of Jesus Christ, their eternal life is secure, sins have been forgiven. There's no condemnation for those who are in Christ Jesus. So the kind of death that he's talking about is a death-like existence. What helps us here is that James is writing to a Jewish audience. That's the mindset. And when they looked at this issue of life and death, it was a difference between life meaning abundance, or a death-like existence of consequences without the blessing of God. Let me show you a couple verses that really help us. In Deuteronomy 30:15, we get a window into the Jewish mind. "See, I have placed before you today life and happiness," that's abundance, and in contrast, "death and adversity." He was saying, look, if you don't follow God, Moses was telling them, then there's gonna be some serious consequences to what happens. Here's another one from the book of Proverbs 12:28. "In the way of righteousness there's life, and in its path there is no death," or death-like existence or consequences and judgment for following your own will and not God's will. And then in Proverbs 13:14, another one, "The teaching of the wise," that would be according to God's will and God's ways, His truth, "is a fountain of life, to turn aside from the snares of death." In the Jewish mindset, there was this death-like existence whereby we're not experiencing the blessing of God. Jesus talked about it in John 10:10. He said, "I want give you," what, "abundant life." I wanna give you the ability to follow Me and serve Me. I'm gonna change you and forgive you and transform you so that you can experience this kind of life that Paul picks up on in Galatians 5:22-23, where he describes the fruit of this abundant life of living with Jesus and abiding with Him. He says, "the fruit of the Spirit is," what? "Love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control, against such things there is no law." This is the abundant life. So now how do we find, though, a path of victory? I mean, we all have experienced this desire moving to deception to disobedience and then death. We've all experienced it, but how do we then go back, or at least prevent it from taking place? If you'll look now at verse 16, James goes there. He says, "Do not be deceived, my beloved brothers." That's a command. "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. 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." Did you notice the contrast? At the end of verse 15 is death, at the end of verse 16 is God bringing about this life, the first fruits of His creatures. And he's saying there's a path of victory, there's a path of life. And if you've embraced Christ as Savior and Lord, the gospel has changed you and broken the bonds that sin has on your life. A great passage I want you to go to this next week is Romans 6 and 7. I want you to read through it. It is in Romans 6 and 7 that Paul begins to describe how you, in your old life, no relationship with God, guilty of the penalty of sin and under the power or the mastery of sin that's pushing you towards sin, it's controlling your life. He says there, if you've put your faith and trust in Jesus Christ, you've been delivered from the power of sin and the penalty of sin. He actually says you, the old you, was crucified. You weren't back when Jesus was crucified, but the moment you put your trust in Him, what was true of Him became true of you. The old life was nailed to the cross, that old person, that old woman, that old man, that old boy, that old girl, that old student was crucified, died. You're no longer under the penalty of sin, forgiven and also delivered from the power of sin. We have been given that ability. Paul summarizes all of that in one verse in Galatians 2:20. He says, "I have been crucified," that's what he was talking about. He got it and now you've got it if you've trusted Christ as Savior. "I have been crucified," notice "with Christ." What was true of Him is now true of you. "And it is no longer I who live," now notice this, "but Christ who lives in me." He's there giving me this new ability to live out the Christian life. How? He explains it, next sentence. "And the life I now live in the flesh," because I'm still living in this old body of mine, "I live," what, "by faith" or trust. This is how it happens. "By faith," in who? "The Son of God," who was crucified, who rose from the grave to give me the ability and path towards victory "who loved me," He did it out of His love, "and He gave Himself up for me," even though I didn't deserve it. He did all the work for me. See how powerful that verse is? Because it sets us, it gives us an understanding that we have been set free. And by faith we can gain the victory. The path for victory starts with trusting God, going to Him, depending upon Him, based on the work that He's already accomplished, and He will continue to do in your life as He transforms you, and His truth. Verse 16, if you'll look down there, I already mentioned it, is a direct command. Don't be deceived. Stop the temptation right there. Go back to God and go back to His truth. Jesus did this. Read it, Matthew chapter four, go back there. When He, fully God, fully man, encountered temptation by Satan in the wilderness, some of you know the answer, maybe others don't, but go back and read it. He answered the devil with every temptation, how? With the truth of God's word, and He went back to, interestingly enough, one book that talks about death and life. It's the book of Deuteronomy. And He quoted Scripture. "All truth is found in the person and the character of God." That's what it flows from. He never changes, we read here. He doesn't change things for us. Everything flows from His character and it's constant. All sin is actually a sin against God and His character. And when we seek to avoid sin, we align our lives with Him and His truth, and we seek to please Him Verse 17. There's no variation. He offers us every perfect gift. Why? Because it flows from His character of goodness, and the fact that He is perfect in every way. He offers that, He's totally holy, He's totally righteous, He's loving, He's just, and the attributes go on and on. And it says, even in verse 18, that we've been given this new life. We've been born again by, how? The word of truth flowing from His character. See, the proof is there. You can trust Him and you can trust His truth, because He's already demonstrated it in your life. If you've put your trust and faith in Him, He's changed you, He's transformed you. And the more you trust Him, the more evidence you have of what He is doing in giving you victory in your life. That's His whole point. So we got to get to know Him and we have to get to know His truth. Romans 12:2 is a verse I go back to quite often, because it talks about the transformation that needs to happen, starting in our mind. The battle for sin is found right here in your mind. You gotta start thinking like a new follower of Jesus Christ, not the old person that's dead. He says, "Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed," what, "by the renewal of your mind." That's how it begins. "That by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect." How do you discern God's will for your life? How does that happen? Well, by being transformed with the renewal of your mind based on God's truth, that's his point here. We're letting it saturate our mind, we're letting it transform us and change us. I love Psalm 119:11, where he says, "Your word I have treasured in my heart." That means to memorize it, let it soak into every area of your life, because you never know when temptation is gonna show up. You got to have some resources ready to go. Why? Here's the promise, "That I may not sin against You." Jesus tells us to abide in Him in John chapter 15. Why? Because as we abide in Him, we learn more about Him, we understand His truth that we are to obey, we start to follow Him out of a desire to live for Him. And we understand that the truth will set us free, because we finally are coming to grips with the fact that we now have true freedom in Christ, not to sin anymore. That's the emphasis, so that as I get closer to Him I understand His truth, I know how I'm supposed to be living, and when temptations come in a variety of ways I need God's truth, His bag of truth, so to speak, to operate as a grid that all of life is sifted through. You have to know the truth so that when the temptation and the lie comes up, you combat it with the truth. You cannot outsmart Satan and his demons in any, way, shape, or form. You have to come to the end of yourself. If you start the rationalization, if you start the lingering, you start going down that road, I'm telling you now, apart from Christ, you'll lose every single time. You don't know what's going on. It shows up in so many different ways. There's layer after layer after layer, and it always goes to death. So you've got to start going back and combat it with the truth. You've gotta know it, you've gotta live it. Why? Because God's helped us. 1 Corinthians 10:13, Paul says, "No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man." In other words, we all face it, as I've said. Now notice this. He goes back to the source, the character, the person of God to trust Him. God is faithful, and He'll not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation He will also provide the way of escape that you may be able to endure it." Whose ability is he talking about here? Not my human reason. No, His strength and power within me. This isn't an issue of my human subjective standard. It's tying back into the objective standard of God's character flowing from His person and who He is. And then with the power of Christ in me He will not allow me to be tempted beyond what He has given me with His ability to overcome it through His truth, so that I can walk in a path of victory. And we also need to trust God and His goodness. If you'll look at verse 17 and 18, he really points us to the goodness of God. He says "every good gift and every perfect gift is from above coming down from Him. God Gives us good things," I love that phrase. "He's the Father of lights." That was a Jewish phrase that described God as the Creator, as the one who brings light and not darkness into our lives. And he says here that that God doesn't change. He never changes. He saved you, He transformed you. We can rest in His promises, whether it's a trial or a temptation. "The word of truth," he says in verse 18, "is the gospel that gives us new life." We embrace it, He changes us, He transforms us. God is a good God. He's not out to get you, He's out to grow you. And He wants you to follow Him. And every temptation, as I said, really comes down to a violation against God's standard. But every temptation has really, if you wanna summarize it, two sources, you're doubting God's goodness and your own pride when you choose to take control. Now, the genesis of this, obviously, was in the garden, 'cause Adam and Eve started doubting God's goodness. God you're withholding from me. I mean, they told them they could eat from any tree in the garden, they could carve their name, Adam plus Eve on the tree, you know, that they weren't supposed to touch. They could do all kinds of things, but there was one tree that God placed there, and he said, just trust My will and trust My ways. Where'd the temptation come from? They didn't get the why. He just said, you gotta trust Me because I'm Creator and you're the creation, and you need to trust My will and My perfections and My love for you. But what do we do? We like our independence and we step forward and we say, no, no, no, I want control of that. He says, just trust Me. Trust My will and trust My ways, even when we don't understand the why. And the doubt is the genesis behind taking control, and then before you know it, we've exercised our pride. We trust His will and we trust His goodness. There's no variation. Notice he says, "There's no variation or shadow due to change," why? Because the world changes, our lives change, circumstances, temptation change, but He doesn't, He remains faithful. And even when we sin, He remains faithful, right? Because we're able to ask for His forgiveness and we're still His children. We still walk in truth with Him. Fill your mind with His goodness, fill your mind with His truth. One of the verses that I go back to quite often is Philippians 4:8, "Finally, brothers, whatever is," here's the things we put into our mind, "whatever is true, whatever is honorable, whatever is just, whatever is pure, whatever is lovely, whatever is commendable, if there's any excellence, if anything worthy of praise, think about these things." So let me ask you a few questions real quick here. What enters the eye gate and lands in your mind and develops roots in your heart? When you're overwhelmed by a problem, what do you dwell on? What do you read? What is being poured into your brain? It's this phrase, garbage in, garbage out. It can be due to spiritual apathy. We think we've arrived and we start pulling away from the Lord. And before we know it, we end up falling into deception. He ends it by saying, look, these Jewish believers, and for us it's 2,000 years ago, where the first fruits, there's a promise of more goodness to come as people come to Christ. So now we have the benefit of 2,000 years of God's track record of faithfulness and saying, look, He's gonna give you victory. And as He does, you're gonna be able to demonstrate hope to a lost world. And let me tell you, our world needs hope and forgiveness through Christ in ways that I've never seen in my lifetime. And he says, live the truth in living color. Well, I wanna give you just a few practical reminders as the Word of God is renewing us, I want you to keep a couple things in mind. First, the Word of God will remind you, and you will notice, through the sensitivity of the Holy Spirit, your weaknesses. You need to know what they are. You need to understand where you're susceptible. And then once you do, you need to establish boundaries and think through how you're going to react in that given situation based on the weaknesses. Just think practically through it. God says, don't go there. That's a weak area for me. I know it is. So I've got to set up boundaries ahead of time and think through, what am I gonna do if that temptation surfaces? And then what do I have to do? Well, now I've got to practice humility and dependence on the Lord, because He's the only one that's gonna give me victory, as we've talked about through those passages in the Bible that we read, those Scripture verses. I've got to humble myself and realize it's not about me, it's about him. I've gotta depend upon Him. This is where I swallow my pride and I begin to focus back on the source of finding my fulfillment in Him. Before sin entered into the world, Adam and Eve found their fulfillment in God and God alone. What happened after? They started trying to find fulfillment in counterfeits. This is where we begin to say no, no, I need to humble myself before God, acknowledging that ultimately He's the only one that can fill me and I depend upon His strength to give me victory as I walk according to His will and ways, even when I don't understand it. And that flows from a deeper relationship with Jesus, as I said, in John chapter 15. This is where I get to know Him, I get to understand His truth. And as I do, I will encounter sin again, but this is where we have the assurance that when we repent, "He's faithful and just to forgive us our sin," 1 John 1:9. So that when we repent, when sin has occurred, we keep short accounts with God and with others. And then we rest in that forgiveness, we don't allow Satan to throw shame back in our face. And as I said, the more you get to know Jesus, the more you grow in love with Him, sin becomes even more detestable, and your desire, your motivation from within your heart is to please Him more and more, because He forgives you, He transforms you, and He's continuing to do so. And you also begin to see the lies that you've been believing, the lies in our world, as you have developed a biblical grid where all of life is sifted through. James says, go to God and you'll find that victory. Let's pray. Father, we thank You that we can trust You in your goodness and in Your incredible grace and forgiveness in our lives. And we thank You that you made it all possible through the cross and through the resurrection. And so we come to You now with a song of confession, Lord, a song that says that we are going to renew our commitment of our trust in You as Savior and Lord. And we believe these things, because we know we can trust You and Your character, that You never change, and that You will give us the strength and the power to live out this new life in the midst of pressure. Our faith is in You, our victory is in You. We rest in it, we confess it. And then, Lord, as we leave this place we wanna offer that hope to others. And so, Father, now, as we stand and sing, we confess the hope that we have in You. It's in Christ's name we pray, Amen.