15 - Lesson 7: Testing, Part 2 Temptations

Well, welcome to the

Striving for Eternity Academy's School of Discipleship. We are glad to be here with us.

This is the class on an introduction to discipling. We're going through a book called

Growing in Grace. We're using this as a tool to disciple. In other words, this class is really on introducing you how to go about discipling another individual.

However, we're using a tool. You can use many tools. You could use running, weight lifting, knitting, things that you have in common with somebody.

We happen to be using this. And it is because it is basically a principles of Bible study, principles of Christian belief so that a new believer, which is what we're really targeting, would be able to enjoy learning

God's Word while you are discipling them. We've been going through this book and as we've been going through, we talked about the fact that there were several lessons.

We're kind of halfway through those lessons. Although each of the lessons are going to be gold, the goal is going to be toward teaching them basic principles of God's Word.

However, the first half are really educational, just instructional.

Now we're getting into the tough life lessons. And this is where discipling really is important.

This is also where it really gets tough. Last week, we started our lesson, this lesson on testings, lesson 7 on testings.

In that, we looked at last week, trials, those we've defined as testings from within, testing from within.

Let's do a quick review of them. That's nice, the black background behind that.

We got it working. We see here that a testing from within, which we're calling, sorry, from without.

Did I say within? Yeah, thank you. Without, that's called a trial. Focused on this week's lesson, which is going to be on top, testings from within.

Testing from without is called a trial. We see here that the mechanisms of a trial is a testing from outside ourselves.

We have some verses for that, but look at what you see here. You see the surety of a trial.

We looked at that. We saw the sources of trials, being the origins and the instruments.

And this was something we didn't break down in the class, but this was a way that the individual, Wayne Smith, who had put these slides together, had done it, which is to see that there's actually a difference between the origins and the instruments.

Origins being that general, you see there, general, under the origins, there's a little block there.

General trials, which come from living in a sinful world. The effects of God allow to come into our lives, and then some chastisement from when we do things wrong.

Then the instruments, he has unbelievers, disobedient Christians, Satan, ourselves, based on our choices, and nature, sickness, storms, things like that.

Some things we didn't actually cover in the class, and this is why some of these slides might be good to go over with a student as well.

You can get those from us. I'll give you an email address at the end of class to tell you where you can email to request these, and I can send those to you.

You're seeing, though, also then a direction. This is meaning that's outside of us as opposed to inside of us.

Then the strategy, the strategy of praying, hanging on to God's word, call for support.

We see the effects of it. You also see how a trial, at the bottom left there, he says how a trial and temptation are linked.

Both are testings, both have opportunities for Christians to demonstrate the same, to demonstrate godly effects.

If you're in a trial, do you seek out a temptation?

No, you shouldn't. This is just a quick review that I hope would be helpful.

Now, we talk about trials, and there are sometimes trials of life, some that are going to be more difficult than others.

We just get done with the lesson on trials, and I would be remiss in not bringing up a trial that one of our very faithful students has undergone.

I know that these classes are recorded over time, and sometimes people say, well, you put things years later, how's this going to, it's no longer relevant.

Well, it's still relevant because it's still people that have major things happen. We're going to talk about this toward the end of class.

We had a brother, Joe Conkle, who is a student here at the academy, who woke up this

Sunday morning, just four or five days before Christmas morning, to his house on fire.

He woke up to make breakfast for his family and discovered that his house was on fire.

He quickly grabbed everyone, got them out of the house just in time, but watched his house burn to the ground.

He said he couldn't believe how fast it went. Joe had lost everything, literally.

His daughter's car was lost in the fire because it was near the garage. All the memories, think about that.

All the memories that you have in your house. He may not even be able to watch the class live because he's got no computer.

I mean, basic things. That is a major trial, and that's different than what some people call trials, when they stub their toe and they think it's a trial.

There's different levels, different degrees of trials, and we need to take that into account.

When you are discipling an individual, no matter what degree, they're going to come up with things in their life that are trials.

Don't discount the degree of their trial. It is a suffering for them.

And it's not having your house burned down, maybe. Maybe it's more in the line of stubbing your toe, but to that person, that may be a major issue, and you need to help them to see past the trial.

One of the things that I was greatly encouraged when I saw a newspaper article written about Joe and how he lost his entire house and everything that went on, they wanted to take a picture of him, and he was smiling for the photo.

And the article even mentions that the reason he could even smile for the photo, he credits to his belief in God.

That's an amazing testimony. I talked to him on the phone a couple times, and he's of good spirits, although he's just getting over a cold and sounds really bad, but he's of good spirit, even though he's kind of in shock.

Why? Because he has an eternal hope. You see, even when you can lose an entire house, you can have a right attitude where you can look past the trial and look forward to Christ.

Where some people stub their toe and you'd think the world is coming to an end, or a girlfriend or boyfriend breaks up with them and they think that's the end of the world.

We've got to keep in mind how severe these things are, but as a discipler, you don't want to make light of their trial.

So let us start this week with temptations. These are testings from within.

A testing from within. We are going to start very much like we did with the last one on trials by talking about the surety of temptations.

The surety of temptations. When we look at that, as my syllabus drops, my notebook, temptations are a trial from within us, something that is not external to us.

We like to blame the external because that just makes it easier. We don't have to blame ourselves, but the reality is most of the testings we have come from within us.

And we create some of them ourselves. We meditate on things we shouldn't be meditating on. But if you look in your

Growing in Grace book, each believer must regard temptation as an unavoidable experience.

You're not going to avoid temptations. Jesus didn't. That's one of the things that's amazing about Christ, and this is something to encourage the person you're discipling with.

Jesus Christ suffered every temptation that you and I suffer to the fullest extent.

What do I mean by that? When you and I suffer a temptation, we are tempted to give into whatever that testing is, whatever that temptation is.

Once we give into that temptation, it is over. Have you noticed that? I noticed when, okay,

I'll admit it. I have a problem with food. I'm a glutton. I understand that. I've been working on it for years.

I've gotten much better. I used to run very often so that you couldn't see the sin of my gluttony.

But I used to, I remember a time where there was a bakery right by where I'd go to church, and you'd go over this hill, and man, you could smell that fresh baked bread.

I mean, it just was right at the right level to as you go over this bridge, you could smell it.

I remember there was a time I just smelt it. I was alone because I've smelt it going to church every morning, every evening.

I'd go with my wife, and I'd be like, oh, we should stop by. She goes, you don't need it. I know, but you don't need it.

I would avoid it because I had a voice of reason sitting right next to me ready to smack me if I turned down that road to get the fresh baked goods.

I was able to avoid that because of the voice of reason in the car.

One time, my wife was not with me. I was alone going to church, and I smelt it. You know what?

I just want to park near there and just look in the window, see what it is. Have you ever done that?

Instead of just turning away from the temptation, you say, I'm not going to eat. I just want to get a little closer, and we get a little closer.

Then we say in our minds, I'm going to walk in the store, but I'm not going to buy anything.

I'm just going to walk around. In the back of my mind the entire time, I know I'm going to buy something.

I know I'm going to eat something, but I'm trying to convince myself that I'm just getting closer without sinning.

This is giving in to temptation. You've already lost when you started doing that.

Granted, you can at some point turn away from that and still fight the temptation, but often when we've gotten to that point, we've already given up because we're thinking about it.

That's what we do. I got close, and I got in the store, and I got to the counter.

Boy, this looks so fresh and smells so good. I ordered something, and I bought it, and I walked out of the store eating it.

The temptation was immediately gone. You know what? It didn't taste as good as I anticipated.

Temptation was gone. All of a sudden, there was no more battle, and it was gone. There's another way to battle with temptation, and that's the way

Christ did it. That is, he suffered the temptation, and the temptation got greater and greater and greater until it dissipated completely.

That's how we're supposed to pass the tests. I can't really give you examples of that. I'm not so good at that,

I guess. I'm good at going into the bakery. But there are times where we suffer, and that temptation gets greater and greater and greater, and then it disappears.

Just as it did, would have disappeared when we gave into it. But the problem is we often give in because it's easier than the struggle of dealing with the temptation.

We're going to give you some things at the end of class that will help you with how a strategy to battle that so that you can have it dissipate without giving in.

But Christ suffered every temptation to its full extent. Just something to think about.

But these are unavoidable. A Christian can be tempted because he has many natural desires with which to be tempted.

But what happens... And by the way, this is a point. Jesus was tempted but did not sin.

So we have to keep that in mind. The temptation is not a sin. Giving into it is the sin.

Jesus was tempted, did not sin. But 1 John 1 .8

gives us something, explains to us what happens when a person claims to not have a sin nature.

If we say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.

So you notice that? If you claim you don't have sin, you deceive yourself.

Now I say this because there are some who believe in what's called sinless perfection. And they believe that they do not sin.

That they are without sin. And some will argue that if you do sin, you lose your salvation.

They'll argue that you can actually lose your salvation if you do any willful sin. And they throw the willful in just as a catch -all so that they can say...

Because they know that they're going to sin. They're just going to say, I wasn't willfully. Well, every sin is willful.

You chose to sin. Even if it wasn't something you thought through. Me going into the bakery was thought through.

I planned it. There are other sins where something happens and I just lie. I mean,

I don't plan it. I don't think about it. Someone challenges me. Boom! Out comes a lie. Now people argue that's an unwilling sin.

It's without thinking. No, that's not true. It was a willful sin that you're used to doing.

And that's why it happened so quickly. Because it was your first response. It was your kind of without thinking response.

It is the immediate response you did under pressure. And what that shows is how you naturally are thinking.

If the lie comes out immediately, it's not because it wasn't willful. No, it was willful.

It's that you did it because that was your immediate response. And you need to change your way of thinking so that your immediate response is no longer to tell a lie.

But we deceive ourselves when we think that we are not capable of sin or that somehow we're not sinning.

We are going to continue in sin. And 1 John 1 .10 has an answer for the person who still has a capacity for sin.

If we say that we have not sinned, we make who?

Him. Him being God. A liar. And His word is not in us. So the question that we have is when we read 1

John 1 .10 and answer whether a believer still has the capacity to sin. Well, the answer to your blank there is yes.

Did I give the blank? The blank for the previous one is they deceive themselves. That's your previous blank for number one.

Number two, the answer is yes. We still have a capacity of sin. Just because we get saved does not mean we lose that capacity.

It means that we now have a true freedom in Christ that we can choose whether to sin or not.

An unbeliever does not have that. They choose to sin. In other words, even when they do something good, they do it for selfish reasons.

There's still self in there. We have the Holy Spirit so we can actually choose to not sin because it glorifies

God and not self. That's the difference. That gives us a true free will.

We then look at number three. It is not a sin to be tempted.

I mentioned this. It is a sin to yield to the temptation. Who was it that was tempted and did not sin?

Hebrews 2 gives an answer. We're also going to have Hebrews 4. Hebrews 2 .18

says, Because he himself has suffered when tempted, he was able to help those who were being tempted.

Jesus suffered the temptation. That's how he can be a sympathetic high priest with us. This is important because this is how he's able to help us who are tempted.

Then it says in Hebrews 4 .15, For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weakness, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are yet without sin.

Do you notice that's the difference? Tempted as we are yet without sin. This talks about the surety of the temptations.

They are going to come. Explain that to the person that you're discipling. Some people have wrong understandings.

Maybe they are not new believers. Maybe they grew up in a church. Maybe they're new believers, but they grew up in a bad church.

A church that had bad doctrine. They're under the belief that when they become a Christian, everything's supposed to get better.

You need to explain to them the surety so that they're not surprised when they're tempted.

Let us look at what is the source of temptation.

As we look at this, we notice that according to James 1 .13,

does God ever tempt his own children? Let's look at that in John 1 .13.

The question is, does God ever tempt his children to do evil?

James says, let no one, that means actually no one.

Let no one say when he is tempted, I am being tempted by God. For God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one.

That almost sounds like James is trying to say the answer to that question is no.

God does not tempt us with evil. That's the answer to your blank there, no. God does not ever tempt with evil.

Where do the temptations come from? What is the source? Let us look at 1 John 2.

Notice many of these are based out of 1 John. Why is that you may ask? That's a good question.

Let me answer that. The reason is that what 1 John is dealing with. 1 John is dealing with an issue of basically this idea that was a

Gnostic thinking. The Gnostics were believing that people could sin in their flesh but not in their spirit and therefore it wasn't a sin.

If you went with a prostitute, this was a common example given by those that were arguing against Gnosticism and use this as the example, the extreme example maybe, but maybe this was the example that some actually were doing.

We seem to think so. This was actually an argument they were making was they were going to be with a prostitute and they were sleeping with a prostitute but saying it wasn't a sin because I only did it in my flesh and not my spirit.

We see people that argue that today. Well, it wasn't a willful sin, therefore I didn't really sin. No, you sinned.

1 John deals a lot with that and that's why so much of that focuses on this. Do not love the world or the things of the world.

For if anyone loves the world, the love of the Father is not in him. For all that is in the world, the desires of the flesh, the desires of the eyes and the pride of life, is not from the

Father but is from the world and the world is passing away along with its desires. Whoever does the will of God abides forever.

Now, let me break this down a little because this is a great passage. There's a lot here that I'd love to go over, but do you see what he's teaching in there?

What we've been trying to explain to you through this class and the whole idea behind striving for eternity is having that eternal mindset.

These temptations that we suffer, they come from desires from within, but they are passing away.

Focus on the eternal. Don't focus on the temptation. We have three sources that we have given here.

The world is the first one. The world, the flesh, the devil is how we have it listed in our book here.

The world. What is impossible to love at the same time that you love

God? According to what we see there and we also see it in James 4 .4, you adulterous people, do you not know that friendship with the world is enmity with God?

Therefore, whoever wishes to be a friend of the world makes himself an enemy of God.

So it is impossible to love God and the world. And that's your blank there, the world.

You can't love the world system. You can't have a greater desire for the things of the world than you do

God. Now, that doesn't mean you can't enjoy the things that God has provided in this world, but you can't have a loving desire for those things more than God.

Okay? I remember when here in America there was a guy who had a Ponzi scheme and I can't remember his name now.

Yeah, okay. So basically he defrauded millions of millions of millions of dollars from very wealthy people.

In America there was a woman who was worth hundreds of millions of dollars and she killed herself because I think she lost like 20 million in this

Ponzi scheme and she took her life. She had like another 250 million

I think it was, but she lost 20 and took her life in despair.

Now to you and I we'd be like, that is crazy. But she had a love for the things of this world and losing that money drove her to despair.

She didn't focus on how much she still had. She focused on that loss so much, which boggles my mind.

But when we look at this, to what, let her be there, to what do the things of this world appeal?

We saw that in 1 John 2. We also see that again in 1

John. We saw 1 John 2, 15 specifically.

Let's look at 16 because we looked at this passage. For the things that is in the world, the desire of the flesh.

That's your first one. The desire of the flesh or the lust of the flesh depending on your translation. The desire of the flesh or lust of flesh is number one in your blank there.

The desire of the eyes or the lust of the eyes, whichever one your translation has. The lust or desire of the eyes and then the pride of life.

Those are your three blanks there. The lust of the flesh, the temptation for their thought life, for the things that appeal to the fleshliness of it, the things that appeal to the physical.

The lust of the eyes, that's more actually the thought life. The things you look at and you covet.

You have sinful desire for. Or just the pride of life. You want that position. You want that prestige.

You want that respect from people. You want people to look up to you. Those sort of things.

You need to define those for the person you're discipling. Take the time. Work through those.

You're going to need to identify. Actually, you want an example. Just ask the person you're discipling if they watch

TV and watch commercials. And you're going to see. My first pastor used to play a game with his kids when they would watch

TV. He didn't watch much TV. Actually, the only TV he would watch is sports. And what his wife would do is during the commercials, because this is before DVRs when you could zip through commercials, right?

But during commercials, his wife would turn off the sound. And the kids would play a game.

And they would look at the commercial and identify lust of the flesh, lust of the eyes, pride of life.

And they would identify which one they thought the commercial was displaying. That was doing a great thing.

What this pastor was doing with his kids was showing them that basically all the marketing that we see in America is one of those three or more of them, multiple sometimes.

You see a car commercial with some poorly dressed woman.

What does she have to do with the commercial? Well, truthfully, nothing. I mean, what does she have to do with the car,

I should say. Nothing. Having her there doesn't show that the car runs faster, runs better, is better built.

None of that. It's the lust of the eyes. It's trying to say, hey, if you have this car, you could get this girl.

That's what it's doing. What was my pastor doing? He was training his children to identify the way the world tries to tempt us so that they would be quick to spot it.

And so that's one of the things he did. We saw in 1 John 2 .17 the answer to this question, letter

C in your book. Can the things of this world provide eternal life? No, they can't.

That's the answer, no. And that's the whole thing. They're passing away is how John puts it. Don't put your trust and your faith in something that's passing away.

These desires are going to pass away. Number two, the flesh. James 1 .14

-15 also mentions about the flesh. Let's just read it.

But each person is tempted when he is lured and enticed by what?

His own desire. And that's actually, stop right there. What provides the enticement to sin when you are tempted?

Well, verse 14 says, our own desires. That's the answer to your blank there, our own desires. What does sin produce if it's harbored in our hearts?

Well, verse 15, then desire when it has conceived gives birth to sin and sin when it's fully grown gives birth to death.

The answer to that blank there is death. Do you notice how he does that? James does this throughout.

He does these linking phrases. That's his style. He talks about sin as if it's a birthing process.

It's born. And what does it conceive? It conceives and gives birth to sin. Sin, when it's fully grown, gives birth to death.

That's the idea there. In other words, sin is going to kill. Now, for a believer, it may physically kill them.

It could. It's not always going to bring a physical death. It's not going to bring a spiritual death.

This is a flaw something, is that if they sin, it brings a spiritual death. No, but it is, as a believer, it's going to bring consequences.

It is going to bring consequences. And James is arguing that we should not be giving ourselves over to these temptations.

What good do they have? They will bring a deadening to our sanctification that's different than our regeneration.

If you don't know those terms, then you should partake in our class on systematic theology, our school of systematic theology.

And we have a class on there, several classes, on the doctrine of salvation, where we'll go over those if you don't know those terms.

But I don't think this person you're talking to, that your discipling is really going to bring that up, but they may.

The devil is the third. The devil is the third means that we have.

And let's look at the devil. We have in 1 Peter 5 .8,

Be sober -minded, be watchful, your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour.

So what is Satan continuously doing? Well, your blank there is he's walking around like a lion seeking to devour.

You could put any phrase like that. You may just say, he's seeking to devour. If your student says he's walking around like a lion, that's not really the emphasis, that's the illustration.

So you want to challenge him. What's it mean to be like a lion? Why is it like a lion? He's walking around roaring.

And I don't know if you've ever heard a lion roar. Maybe you've gone to a zoo. And I've been in a,

I remember being at a circus. And we were, because of friends of ours, they got right down in the second row of the circus.

Right, I mean, really, really close. And we were right near where they had the lions. And there was a lion really close to us.

And we were kind of looking over at the center ring. And all of a sudden, this lion let out a roar. And I mean, all of us just froze.

I mean, we just stopped dead. And we just all, and looked at the lion.

And it just had a stunning, literally a stunning, because we were stunned, effect on us.

That's one of the things that some argue with the lion's roar is that the roar is there to stun and then attack.

And it just had this effect that just froze us and captured the attention.

But that's what he's doing. He's looking to use that roar to stun us and then pounce on us, devour us.

All right. And James 1 .15 says, what does sin produce if it's harbored in the heart?

Sorry, I'm reading the wrong one. I was in the wrong spot in the book. All right. So, the second thing is, why is it, why is the

Christian struggle with sin so strong? The answer is in Ephesians 6, that's a spiritual battle.

It's a spiritual battle. For we do not wrestle against flesh and blood, but against rulers, against authorities, and against, this one says, cosmic powers, it's an interesting translation, but over the present darkness, against the spiritual forces of evil in heavenly places.

So, the reason we have this struggle is it's a spiritual struggle. It's the same reason that some people don't believe.

People don't refuse Christ because they don't have enough evidence. It's a spiritual battle.

Just like our temptations is a spiritual battle. And so, you need to help your student, the person you're cycling, understand that.

They are in a spiritual battle. Let us also notice, as we now see the surety of temptations, the source of temptations, we can also look at the strategy for temptation.

That is an important thing. We need a strategy against temptations.

So, is there ever a temptation that enters into life that we cannot conquer?

Well, 1 Corinthians has an answer for us. It says there,

No temptation has overtaken you. That is not common to man. God is faithful.

He will not let you be tempted beyond your ability. But with the temptation,

He will also provide a way of escape that you may be able to endure it.

So, the answer to your blank there, Is there ever a temptation that enters into our life that we cannot conquer?

As Christians, the answer is no. Why? Because the Holy Spirit indwells us and we now have an ability to conquer all temptation.

What does God provide in our life when temptation enters our life?

Well, the answer to that in your blank there is an escape. He provides an escape. But let me explain to you what we often do.

I had an escape with the bakery. I could have kept driving and been to church.

Well, early. I'm usually early. But I got there on time.

Why? Because I stopped at the bakery. I could have kept driving.

I did not. Therefore, I avoided the way of escape.

You know what I could have done when I stopped the car and parked outside just so I could smell it? I could have started the car back up and kept driving.

I didn't. Do you know what I could have done as a way of escape? When I walked in the bakery?

I could have walked out of the bakery. I did not. You know what

I could have done when I asked to see the baked goods?

I could have said no and walked out. I did none of those things. Because, quite frankly,

I didn't want to. Desire had already been conceived in my heart and gave over to sin already.

This is why when people come to me that are not married and they're like, How much can we do without sinning?

Can we touch hands? Can we kiss? Can we touch one another? How close can we come and not sin?

My answer to that, whatever it is, alcohol. How much can we drink before we're sinning and drunk?

Whatever it is, when you ask that question, my answer usually is, it's too late.

In asking the question, you reveal what your heart is. That's the issue.

This is a heart issue. And we need to be aware of that.

We need to know what the heart issue is. So with that, we need to not say,

How close can I come to the temptation without giving in to sin?

No, we flee it. We avoid it. We look for the escape route.

And the reality is, this verse is one that I've memorized, because you're going to be asked to memorize it as part of the class, right?

But I've memorized it, and yet, you know this verse comes in my head at times? And I'll think about it.

I can walk in the bakery like I did, and I actually thought of this verse, and I actually thought the way of escape.

I knew what the way was, and I avoided it. That's okay. Because we're going to talk about what we should do when we do give in to sin.

God provides a way. When we do give in to that temptation, we yield to that temptation,

God has a plan for that as well. It doesn't surprise Him at all. Remember God's omniscient. He knew you would do it before He saved you.

So, how can we resist Satan? How can we cause

Satan to flee? Well, James has an answer for us. James says, Submit yourselves, therefore, to God.

Resist the devil, and he will flee from you. So, the answer to your blank there in your book is,

Submit, submit to God, and resist the devil. Submit to God and resist the devil.

What are the two steps we could take to prepare for temptation? Well, Mark 14 has the answer to that.

Watch and pray that you do not enter into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

So, what are the two things? Watch and pray. Watch and pray. Those are the answers to your blanks there.

Be watchful. Be mindful. Don't be surprised. Don't be caught off guard. Expect that temptations are going to come.

And I've got news for you. Temptations usually come after a spiritual high. Peter had that.

The Lord asks him this, Who do men say that I am? He has this great thing. He says,

You're God. You've got it right. And then, just a little bit later,

Jesus is saying to Peter, Get behind me, Satan, because Peter is now sticking his foot in his mouth. I often find this, that after a spiritual high,

I've got to keep my guard on. It's one of the reasons I, and some feel that this is a problem

I have. I'm not good at receiving praise. When people say, if I get done speaking at a conference or a church, and someone,

Hey, that was really good. I'm uncomfortable with it. I don't take compliments well. I have a dear friend of mine, a sister -in -law, who really gets on me for that.

And she means well, and I understand why she does it. But, why do I have such a hard time?

I know myself, and I know how pride works, and I'm on guard.

Because I don't want, I know that that kind of spiritual high can be the temptation for the pride.

And I'm trying to avoid that. I need to find a way to do it without making people feel that, you know,

Hey, I appreciate what you're saying, you know, type of thing. We need to be mindful.

We need to be on guard, and we need to be praying. You know, most people that come to me struggling with great temptations in their life, usually the things

I'll ask them is, How much are you studying the Bible, and how much are you praying? And the answer to those are, Not much. Those are what we must do.

We need to be watchful. We need to be in the Bible. We need to be studying, preparing, and praying.

Alright? Those are the things that we should be doing. Actually, I guess

I got jumped ahead. Psalm 119 .9 What can we do to prevent yielding to temptation?

How can a young man keep his way pure? By guarding it according to your

Word. That's the answer. heed God's Word. Read God's Word. Study God's Word.

Meditate on God's Word. Have God's Word flowing through you at all times. It's going to help you.

So, be in God's Word. Be praying. Be watchful. Be mindful. Those are the things you do. Now, we're going to sin.

And let the person you're discipling know, you're going to fall. We all do. What do we do when that happens?

John 1 .9 If we confess our sins,

He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.

Proverbs 28 also talks about this. Whoever conceals transgressions will not prosper, but whoever confesses and forsakes it, to them will obtain mercy.

So, the answer to your blanks there is confess and forsake or confess and repent. We are to confess our sin and turn from it.

That is what we should do. That is the solution. So, when you struggle with these things, understand that God's omniscient.

He knew this was going to happen. Confess the sin to God. If it is a life -dominating sin, in other words, a sin you do very often, what you will find is that people often do these things and then they feel shame to go to God.

They feel they can't go to God and ask forgiveness because they are too ashamed. That shame is the very thing that will keep them from the very thing they need most,

God. That shame is a way that our pride works to keep us from confessing our sin because we need to confess it and then repent.

If we don't admit to what we are doing as wrong, we are going to be more likely to repeat it.

This is going to be different depending on who you are discipling. Earlier believers, you are going to see more outward things.

Foul language, smoking, drinking, sleeping with their girlfriend or boyfriend, things like that.

Outward things. They are going to struggle with those more and they are going to struggle with that earlier on.

As they walk with the Lord more years and maybe they have given up those outward things, you are going to see more that the struggle is in here.

They are going to start talking about their thought life. They are going to talk about the things they are looking at, the things they are desiring.

Maybe they are struggling with pornography, even not viewing it, but just pornography that they viewed years ago.

Or they look at that poorly dressed woman. There is a reason I didn't go to the beach. Even though I live by the beach,

I wouldn't go to the beach for years in the summer. Why? Because of the way women would dress. Seeing that would bring back memories of other women that I saw that were not dressed.

That would be the problem. Maybe it is coveting. Maybe you just have this desire to have things.

You can't look at a magazine. Maybe you need to get rid of those catalogs. Why? Because they have a bunch of things and you go,

I really want that. I really want that. You will see people that start struggling in the mind with things like that.

Understand that the person you are discipling is not you. Their struggle is not going to be your struggle. Your struggle, you may not struggle with that at all.

That is why you need to go to someone who does. If you struggle with something, you go to someone like that that doesn't struggle with it at all.

That is what you end up doing. I remember going to the UK with a bunch of brothers.

We were evangelizing at the Olympics. I was flipping through TV. I don't sleep much. We were in the

YMCA. We had this really small room. There was really nowhere to sit but the bed.

They didn't have a comfortable lounge. We really didn't have a place for the brothers to fellowship.

We all went to our rooms. After 12 hours of evangelism, we were exhausted by the time we got done with dinner.

I didn't have a computer. I wasn't too wise on that.

I didn't have a way to really connect to the Internet.

I had my iPad with me but I couldn't connect to Wi -Fi. That was the problem. I just sat and I was flipping through the

TV. UK TV was different than American TV. I saw things on the

UK TV that I guess are legal that I was like, whoa, whoa. It's 2 in the morning. I'm like, no.

I didn't want to even have the temptation even though most of the time I was watching the news but during the commercials

I was flipping because I don't want to see the commercials. I flipped to something I saw worse than the commercial. I at that point shut it off and did not even want to watch the news.

What did I do? These TVs were ones where you only could control with a remote. I walked across the hall in the morning and asked a brother of mine who

I know doesn't struggle with that. I said, hey, can you hold my remote?

Can you take this? If I don't have the remote, I can't turn the TV on. Then it's not an issue because now

I'm done with it. What would I have to do if I am even a little bit tweaked to give in to the yielding of that temptation?

I've got to go across the hall and ask for my remote back. What's my brother going to do? Why do you need it? I gave the remote to someone

I knew was going to be keeping me accountable. That's what we need to do.

We need to understand that if we don't struggle with something it doesn't mean that the struggle that a person we're discipling isn't real and serious.

There are things I have no struggle with at all. It's not a pride issue.

I'm not tempted by it. I know others who come up and they're like, man, this is such a great struggle. It's just not my temptation.

Food would be. But for you, maybe food's not a big deal. You just eat. You have to understand where they're at.

You need to be mindful that their struggle is real. You need to think about that and know that because you're acting in the position of a counselor now.

When you're discipling them, you need to really take care in how you speak with them and how you talk with them because you need to be compassionate with their struggle.

I said I'd give you an email where you can get those slides we looked at earlier. We have another slide that we won't put up that we'll look at next week on a review of this class because we're out of time.

You can email us at academyatstrivingforattorney .org. There would be a place you could go to pick that up.

You can also go to our store and you can pick up the book, the Growing in Grace book and pick up a copy of that at our store.

That's there for you. Lastly, as we do, I mentioned a brother who is struggling.

Those who attend this class regularly, we thank you. We want to always be encouraging you to encourage others.

I am greatly encouraged. I started a thing on Facebook where I'm starting to name people by name and encourage them and state why.

I'm doing it publicly because I want to encourage them publicly and encourage others to encourage others.

I am so grateful. Sisters like Angela Braxton who started doing that and then others were encouraged by her encouragement and stating that.

My brother Ricky Gantz did it and others who are starting to encourage others.

We are Christians. Let's be known by our encouragement. I got someone I want you to encourage this week.

I'm going to give you a specific way. I know last week we asked you to encourage Brother Mitch and encourage you to fund the removal of his tattoo so that he could get rid of that.

We explained that. I don't ask for money for our ministry as much but we'd be grateful if you give it.

You can donate and help put this together, put this on. I got a brother

I really, really, really, really want to encourage you to encourage right now.

That's Brother Joe Conkle. What you're looking at there is a picture of what is left of his house when the firefighters were there.

You see the email there that we have. That is an email where you can send PayPal. You can send a

PayPal money directly to him. If you don't want to send it to him you can contact us at the email.

After we get done I'll put the email back up for the academy. You can email us and someone will give you my

PayPal account that we've set up for anonymous giving to him. If you don't want to give, if you don't have

PayPal you can go to our website and just send a check to Joe's name if you want it to be anonymous.

Make it my name. I'll cash it and I'm right with check to Joe and mail it to Striving for Eternity Care of Joe Conkle P .O.

Box 189 Jackson, New Jersey 08527

You can use PayPal to J. Conkle at nero .rr

.com or you could do it to mine that I set up for this which is rapdrew .com

at hotmail .com We set those up so that we'd be able to receive money to go to Joe.

Take a good look at his house. I actually stayed in that home. I had the privilege of being able to stay with his family.

You're looking there at the back of his garage and you can see only the frame left.

It burned completely down. Joe woke up to make breakfast for his family. The fire started, they think, in his garage and he discovered it and was able to get his family out of the house in time but got his dog out.

They couldn't find the cat. We don't know what happened to the cat but you can see the devastation.

I really want to strongly encourage you if you can give anything. There's nothing too small for this brother right now.

He's lost everything. There's nothing left of this house.

It burned to the ground. If you can possibly help him. You can see the car there. That was his daughter's car.

This is right before Christmas. They lost all of the presents that they had given for Christmas. It's going to take a long time for insurance to kick back in.

He can use some encouragement right now. His wife, Brenda, can use encouragement.

It seems to be harder on women, the shock, because of the loss of memories. That's really what happened.

They've lost all their memories. Just think about that. As you look at this picture, as you put yourself in that position, can you go without coffee for a week and maybe give $5 or $10 to him to help him out?

He's going to need money right now. Think about it. He was graciously provided.

One of his neighbors, two doors down, had a death in the family. They had an empty house they didn't put up for sale yet.

They allowed Joe to move in there with his family, but he had no clothes. They left in their pajamas.

They watched their house burn down in their pajamas. This couple went out and got them some clothes.

They've got to restock a refrigerator. They have no food. They've got to get the food back in this neighbor's refrigerator because the neighbor didn't have food in the fridge when the person died.

They cleaned it out. Think about these basic necessities that he now has to provide for.

Insurance isn't going to come up and give them money right away. Think about if you could go to PayPal and send it as sending a gift to a friend.

That way there's no charges. If you do it from your bank account, there's no charges there.

Think about that. It would be a great help to him at this time of need.

Just put yourself in that position. Think about what would happen with you. If you need to get more details, you can email us at academyatstrivingforattorney .org.

Be happy to get back to you and explain to you his situation and what's going on.

We just want to encourage you with that. It's a sad, it's a tough time. He's a dear brother, a dear friend.

I love him and his family greatly. He and his wife are students at the academy.

His daughter is a student at the academy. I've gotten to know even his grandson who is just great to be around.

I really want to encourage you to encourage him this week. One way you can greatly encourage him is really with a gift, a financial gift, to help provide for his needs right now.

Even if you're seeing this weeks after the live show, it can still be an encouragement to him.

Joe was forced into retirement because of a knee injury. He was working for the state as a corrections officer.

He doesn't have much of a pension. He was forced into retirement because of his health.

He was struggling beforehand. Any gift would be greatly appreciated,

I'm sure. It's going to be a long time before he can recoup from this. If you've ever gone through things like this, insurance never covers everything that was lost.

Just something. If not, you can always encourage him online. I want to just thank you for participating in the class.

I understand that when we go through a class on testings, you're going to be more aware of it.

You're going to see them more. It's going to be greater trials in your life, temptations in your life.

I don't teach this class so that you'd have more of it, but I teach it so that you could, as we're going to learn next class, be more obedient.

That's going to be next class on obedience. I look forward to seeing you then. Remember to strive to make today an eternal day for His glory.